The Adventures of Avatar Azula
by TealTerror
Summary: Before, Azula wanted to rule the world.  As the Avatar, she's required to save it.  All the worse for the world.  Sequel to "Trapped."
1. The Day of Black Sun

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ or its various properties. Yet.

**Author's Note: **This is the sequel to my previous fanfic, _Trapped_. As such, I highly recommend reading _Trapped_ before _The Adventures of Avatar Azula. _It's not that long, and much of this fanfic will not make sense if you don't.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

What does it mean to be the Avatar?

That question I've been trying to answer for, oh, the past 90 years or so.

When I was a girl, my father told me the Avatar was a traitor—a being whose purpose was to sell out our world to the Spirit World. He told me the Avatar's opposition to the Fire Nation's expansion was just the most radical example of this continuous betrayal.

A bit later on, I believed that the Avatar Spirit was a capricious trickster, granting mortals unimaginable power in exchange for endless misery.

Others have their own theories. The Avatar's purpose is to maintain balance, both within and between worlds. The Avatar is the Material World's ambassador to the Spirit World. The Avatar is someone who achieved enlightenment, but still sticks around to bring that enlightenment to others.

I even knew one woman who thought the Avatar was just an incredibly strong bender, and all that other stuff merely fruitless attempts to give that power some sort of greater meaning.

You could say that the Avatar's meaning is whatever you give it, but that's kind of a cop-out, isn't it?

The best answer I can give is this: the Avatar is me. No more…and maybe a little bit less.

For whatever that's worth.

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**The Day of Black Sun**

* * *

Both Sokka and Azula wanted to give the speech. Azula, as usual, won the argument.

Being the Avatar did have _some_ benefits.

As Azula stepped onto the platform, feeling the cool rock under her feet, she directed all her remaining senses to surveying the men and women lined up before her.

Ambient conversation floated across her ears.

Scents from the world over wafted into her nose.

Vibrations in the earth flowed through the rock, to her feet, and filled up her entire body.

And the air displaced by all of their movements brushed against her skin.

Azula nodded to herself, trying to quiet a rare sensation of trepidation that was currently gripping her stomach.

_My plan _will _work._

When she arrived at the center of the dais, she turned to face the crowd and waited. Idle talk and movement soon ceased, as they regarded the fourteen-year-old blind Avatar who was standing before them.

"As you are hopefully aware," she began, "we will be attacking the Fire Nation capital today. What you ideally _don't_ know is why I picked this date. You see, today, a most fortuitous event will occur." She paused, for dramatic effect, before continuing. "A total solar eclipse. The sun will disappear, and firebenders will lose their ability to bend."

A flurry of conversation followed this remark. Azula was content to let it subside naturally—she had set aside a fair amount of time for this ceremony—until she heard a statement directed at _her_.

"The Boulder would like to know," began a frighteningly familiar voice, "why we were not informed of this fact before today."

Azula let her lips twist into a smile. "If I told every Li, Shou, and Jun about it, it'd reach the Firelord's ears within a day. Keeping it secret ensures we retain the element of surprise." She let her eyeless gaze wander about the crowd. "Does anyone else have an issue with this?"

There was a cough, but nothing more.

Azula nodded. "Good. Now, the eclipse itself will only last for eight minutes, so most of the invasion is still going to take place under the sun." As always, while Azula was speaking, she felt the caution drain out of her, as her mask of determination and fearlessness soon became real. "The goal will be to make our way to the Palace right before the actual eclipse—most of the firebenders will be there, so it's at the final leg where we'll need the eclipse the most. For further details, consult your Unit Commanders.

"Of course, because the main Earth Kingdom army attacked, in concert with the rebellion of Fire Nation soldiers loyal to me, a few days ago, there are far fewer soldiers here than normal. Let that give you confidence that victory is well within reach.

"Unfortunately, I will be unable to join you. Since my main role will be battling the Firelord, it has been decided that I should remain hidden until the very end. Therefore, I will be tunneling underground during the majority of the battle; this will also let me cut off any officials who might try to escape underground. Because of that, the success of this operation rests entirely on the abilities, determination, and will of all of you."

Azula let her head survey the gathered soldiers one more time, before nodding. "This war has gone on for one hundred years. Let's end it right here, right now."

Her smile at the cheer-slash-battle cry that sentence brought out was more genuine.

* * *

Even Toph had to admit that Sokka's submarines were useful. That didn't save him from suffering a _very_ large number of insults she threw at him mentally, as she threw up into a helmet for the fifth time in as many minutes.

Next to her, she heard Azula laughing. "So, the Greatest Earthbender in the World's sole weakness is water, eh? Watch out for puddles."

Toph would have punched her, if she could've _seen_ anything in this damn metal box. Instead, she was forced to settle for, "Shut up, Hot Lips."

"An inspired comeback, there."

Toph muttered under her breath, then cringed as she felt more bile coming up, and reached for that helmet again.

* * *

The submarines had risen temporarily, to fill back up on air before submerging again. Zuko took advantage of the opportunity to lie on his back on top of the structure, gazing up at the sky, trying not to think of anything.

"Hey."

Zuko sat up and turned to see Sokka standing behind him.

"You doing okay?" the other boy asked, hesitantly.

Zuko looked down, and sighed. "About as well as can be expected, I guess."

Sokka sat next to him. They both looked at the sky in silence for a bit, and then Sokka said, "You don't have to fight in this battle, you know, if you don't want to."

Zuko turned his head slowly to look at the other boy. Sokka was still gazing upward, his expression unreadable. "I've already decided," Zuko said slowly, looking back up at the sky. "My journeys with Uncle only further convinced me that what Father is doing is wrong. I'm going to do whatever I can to stop him. Besides…" he looked down again. "Azula's the one who actually has to fight him, not me."

More silence, until Sokka broke it with, "Think she'll be able to do it?" There was more than a trace of fear in his voice.

Zuko closed his eyes, thinking of his sister. "Most likely," he said, even more slowly, "fighting Father is the only reason she's here."

* * *

The speech had settled Azula's nerves temporarily, but the stupid submarine was bringing them back again. As much as she made fun of Toph, travelling underwater wasn't exactly sunshine and roses for her, either.

No, that wasn't it. Blaming the submarine was an excuse. She was clenching her fists so tightly her nails drew blood because she was thinking about her father.

"_One day, Azula, all of this will be yours."_

"_You are perfect in nearly every way, my dear daughter. I couldn't be a happier father."_

"_I love you, Azula."_

_He stopped right in front of her…and smiled._

_Then her father's fist met her face_

_Pain_

_Can't move arms_

_Can't move legs_

"_The Firelord wants to keep you alive, but he said I could have a souvenir."_

_He reached his fire-cloaked hand toward her face and_

_PAIN_

"Something the matter, Azula?"

Azula started. That voice had been Toph's, and she had laced it with an extremely un-Tophlike amount of concern. She hadn't even used her stupid nickname.

"The submarine is bad for me, too," Azula lied. Her lies to Toph were usually successful—even if nobody else's were—but that one was probably too easy to read. Whatever the case, the other girl didn't pursue the matter.

_She's probably already guessed_, Azula thought. Toph was a lot like her in a lot of ways, which produced both advantages and disadvantages. Her annoying level of insight into Azula's emotional life was definitely in the 'disadvantage' category.

Azula mentally sighed, and her brain soon returned to thinking about Ozai. She made several futile attempts to stop it, until she finally ran across a method that worked: repeating the same sentence to herself, over and over, without pause.

_My plan _will_ work._

* * *

_Ten minutes until landing._ Sokka wiped the sweat off his palms for what seemed like the thousandth time.

With Azula and Toph going off by themselves, the leadership of the strike operation had been given to General Chen from the Earth Kingdom's Council of Five. However, the forces had been divided into a number of squads, depending on where the soldiers hailed from. With Father leading the much larger distraction force, Sokka had been chosen as Unit Commander of his tribe's squadron.

Which meant that any deaths would be his fault.

_Nine minutes until landing._ Sokka's teeth started chattering, and no matter what he did, he couldn't—

Someone was touching his shoulder. "Aaah!" Sokka shouted, drawing his sword—

"Sokka, it's just me," Katara said, both hands in the air.

Sokka took entirely longer than necessary to re-sheathe his sword, wipe the sweat from his brow, and mumble some sort of an apology.

"Come on, Sokka. You're killing yourself like this."

Sokka sighed. "I know." _Eight and a half minutes until landing._ "But I can't help it. This is the first time I've had to lead an army since—since ever!" He noticed he was flailing his arms, and stopped. "I don't…" He sat down and put his head in his arms. "I don't think I'm ready."

A few seconds passed by in silence. _Eight minutes until landing_. Then Katara put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's not unreasonable for you to be nervous," she said. "But you're not alone. I'm here. And Father sent Bato here in order to give you advice. It's not all on your shoulders."

Sokka chuckled. "I should've guessed you'd understand." He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Because I'm nervous about the same thing."

That line made Sokka look up. Indeed, his sister was hugging herself, eyes studying the metal beneath her feet. He could even see a slight trembling.

"I've been trained by both Hama and Pakku. I'm the best Waterbender here… with Azula and Toph gone, I might be the best Bender here, period. Pakku's even told me I might become the most powerful non-Avatar Waterbender in centuries when I'm older. You think I don't realize how much the success of this operation depends on me?"

Sokka opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say.

"So…" she finally looked at him, and he could see she strained to make a small smile. "If I support you, would you support me?"

Sokka had never seen his sister like this, and he knew he might not see her like this again. He had no idea what the proper response was to it.

So he just nodded.

And even that small act made his heart a little lighter.

_Seven minutes until landing._

Only just a little, though.

* * *

Movement to the left. Zuko swept one broadsword, sending a wave of flame at it.

Fire to the right. Zuko slashed through it with the other broadsword, bending it to disperse.

No matter how many times he trained with Uncle, it never prepared Zuko for the chaos and calamity of real battle, much less war. The only way he could survive was to, essentially, sit back and let his instinct take over.

Which had the added benefit of not letting him think about the fates of the people he hurt, or killed.

A Fire Nation unit was charging ahead of him. One of the earthbenders stomped, sending several of them flying, but some managed to recover. Zuko sent a bolt of flames into them.

The battle was easier than it had any right to be. Most of the soldiers who'd ordinarily be stationed here had been sent to combat the diversionary invasion, and most of the ones who weren't were presently retreating to the palace. Azula and the others had left plenty of time for them to reach the palace before the eclipse, but that seemed fairly unnecessary at this point.

A group of soldiers ignored more obvious targets and started charging at him, their few firebenders launching attacks. Zuko blocked them, ordered his forces as Unit Commander to intercept, and prepared to launch a counterattack—

When a wave of water rushed him and knocked him on his face, almost breaking his nose. He barely had time to be offended when he felt a huge impact next to his head.

Looking in that direction, he saw a giant, flaming rock that was a few _bu_ away from crushing his head like a grapefruit.

"We need to take out those towers," he heard, and looked up to see Katara, his apparent savior, hair sprawled in all directions and a look of intense concentration on her face.

Zuko nodded. "They're probably the biggest obstacle right now." He looked at one row of them, giant metal structures that were launching heavy projectiles at their forces, and got a sudden idea. "Think you and the other waterbenders can move the ocean up and wash them out?"

Katara considered one briefly. "Maybe the closest ones."

Zuko nodded. "Go do that. I'll take care of the other two."

While Katara ran off to gather the other waterbenders, Zuko approached some earthbenders, and managed to pull a few off to bend some stairs for him in the cliff face. They climbed up and waited, Zuko watching the ocean.

Soon enough, two waves, narrow in width but tsunami-like in height, rose up and crashed against the two towers nearest the ocean, crushing them.

"Now!" Zuko said to the earthbenders with him. The tower operators, distracted by their comrades' demise, didn't notice as he busted down their entrance and ran to their station. He took them down easily.

After that, Zuko looked at their equipment. He hadn't seen it before, but as he had guessed, they set boulders laced with lighting fluid into a launching mechanism, lit it on fire, then catapulted it into the valley. Zuko lit it himself, then motioned to the earthbenders.

As he had told them earlier, they lifted the boulder up, stamped their feet, and sent it flying into the last tower opposite them.

Zuko lit another one of the boulders they had in stock. "Again!" he shouted. They sent another flaming rock into the structure, and another, until it finally collapsed.

When Zuko returned to the valley, he saw that the Unit Commanders had all gathered. He ran up to join them.

"It appears we've got this area under control," General Chen told him when he arrived. "All units are to clear the path to the Palace. We're ahead of schedule, so we can afford to put safety above speed."

Zuko nodded, called his unit together, and relayed to them the orders.

And tried his best to quiet that nagging voice at the back of his head that said, _One step closer to Father._

* * *

Tunneling through the ground using earthbending was slow, difficult, boring work. The only direction Azula could move the rock was up, but if she wasn't careful, she'd cause the entire thing to crash down on her. And because the earth was _incredibly_ complex, only Azula and Toph, with their seismic sense, could do that. Even with both of them working together, though, it took utmost concentration for prolonged periods of time, as well as a constant use of bending that proved mentally and physically exhausting.

According to Toph, it was the primary means of movement by the badgermoles that had taught her earthbending. For the life of her, Azula could never tell just how much the other girl was joking.

They tunneled together in silence for hours, the only noise the constant movements of rock and Azula's own mental voice reassuring herself again and again.

_My plan _will_ work._

* * *

The thrill of victory at the beach had already subsided. Now, Sokka was keeping a running record of the time until the eclipse up to the second. Despite that, he still checked the sundial on his wrist once every ten seconds, just to make sure.

Azula, Gran-Gran, and General How had planned on two hours between taking the beach and the beginning of the eclipse. Thanks to the speed of their victory, they had almost five. That was the time they had to prepare for conquering the Fire Nation's palace—perhaps the most impregnable installation in the world—in eight minutes.

And that wasn't counting the _special_ instruction Azula had given him, Zuko, and Katara, regarding dealing with the Firelord. He couldn't help glancing at General Chen as he thought of that, wondering how the Earth Kingdom warhorse was going to react.

But as he and his troops took up their positions along the palace's borders, and time slowly waned, Sokka's emotions reacted differently than they had on the submarine. Maybe it was because of their earlier success. Maybe it was the knowledge that, after one hundred years of suffering, it would only be eight more minutes before the fall of the Fire Nation. Or maybe his nervousness had just burned itself out. For whatever reason, as the time of the eclipse approached, Sokka could feel his heart grow stronger, the raging tempest in his body calm down and slowly turn to ice.

"One minute until we attack, everyone," he muttered.

He couldn't help whispering a countdown as the moon meandered toward the sun.

_Three…_

_Two…_

_One._

It was the middle of the day, but the world was covered in darkness.

"GO!"

* * *

Toph had been taking over tunneling duties for a while, so that Azula could relax before her big fight, when she saw Azula flinch.

"What?" Toph asked.

"Firebending's gone," Azula grunted. "We won't make it at this rate."

Toph swore under her breath, her hands too busy moving rock to even wipe the sweat from her brow. "Rested up enough to help out again? We're almost there."

Azula started tunneling again, in lieu of an answer. Together, they managed to finally break through to a giant underground tunnel in a minute.

"Think you can find your way by yourself?" Toph asked, semi-sarcastically.

Azula huffed. "Just who do you think you're talking to? What about you—can you find the cowards who're trying to retreat underground?"

Toph grinned. "I've caught sight them just as you were talking, Hot Lips."

Azula made an irritated noise; Toph guessed she was upset her seismic sense was still inferior to the earthbender's. "Then I'll see you at war's end."

They started running off in opposite directions, toward their respective targets, when Toph felt the need to call behind her back, "Don't die!"

Azula didn't respond. Just as well; her mission was far more difficult, after all. Toph didn't need any support in taking out retreating bureaucrats underground.

_I do hope you know what you're doing, Hot Lips_, Toph thought, before focusing her mind on the targets.

* * *

As soon as the eclipse happened, Zuko could _feel_ it. While the ember in the center of his soul had been waxing and waning since his birth, as fire is wont to do, becoming stronger with the sun in the sky, weaker with his own self-hatred, he had never truly paid attention to it until it completely extinguished.

"NOW!"

Zuko and the other soldiers had been camping out as close as they could to the palace's walls without suffering counterattack. They had feigned a siege, assuming that Father would choose to wait for reinforcements to arrive. It turned out Azula and the others had guessed correctly, and the majority of the troops stationed at the borders were Firebenders. They were overrun quickly.

Zuko and his Fire Nation defectors were the weakest of the forces during the eclipse, but as it turned out, that didn't actually matter very much. Most of the remaining enemy soldiers were incredibly demoralized—Zuko knew it likely started with the stall in the war efforts, which were then heavily exacerbated by the invasion and rebellion, and now by their overwhelming victory at the beach. The eclipse, more likely than not, only pushed them over the edge. Most of the soldiers his group came across surrendered without a fight.

As they rushed through the city, Zuko dispatched various predetermined soldiers to split up and take side roads, destroying the fighting capacity of any enemies they came across. As planned, he arrived at the palace alone, and saw Sokka, Katara, and General Chen were already inside.

"Four minutes left, Zuko," Sokka said as soon as Zuko ran up to him.

Zuko answered with a tight nod, briefly glanced at the other two, then charged inside.

His job now, naturally, was to lead them to Father.

They did run into guards along the way, but without Firebending, they were no match.

The others had worried that the Firelord might run off somewhere when he saw how bad the battle was going. Zuko and Azula had both known otherwise. Whatever Firelord Ozai's faults were, cowardice was not one of them. Father was going to go down with his empire.

And, as expected, Zuko and the others found him sitting on his throne, still wearing an expression of complete confidence.

As soon as Zuko saw him, he gasped, and stopped moving. It had been more than two years.

Then Father looked at him.

Zuko had expected hatred, loathing, or contempt. Or maybe an arrogant sneer, or (in his wildest dreams) a look of profound sadness. Instead, all he saw was disappointment.

Immense, crushing disappointment, enough to almost send Zuko to his knees.

"Stand up!" Sokka shouted, brandishing his sword at Father.

Father finally took his gaze away from Zuko, much to the latter's relief. The expression he favored Sokka with was filled with the expected contempt.

"Or what? You'll kill me?"

"As much as I would like to," Sokka almost growled, "that's not my duty." He and General Chen ran to his throne, and together managed to haul Father off of it. Sokka put his sword to the man's back, General Chen to his neck, and Katara wrapped all the remaining water in her pouches along his upper body.

Zuko, to his eternal shame, only stood there. But he did join them as they marched Father past him, and he added his broadsword to the others.

Nobody said a word as they led the Firelord outside, adding ropes to Katara's water in preparation for the end of the eclipse. During their walk, Zuko's inner flame reappeared as quickly as it had been extinguished, and he didn't think of anything as they stepped under the sun again.

As they stepped onto the main courtyard, they saw a huge crowd of spectators, Alliance soldiers, disarmed Fire Nation warriors, and regular citizens alike; all there to witness the end of the Hundred Years' War.

And right in the center stood Azula.

* * *

Azula smiled, and raised her finger, as a signal. Through the earth and wind, she saw Katara, Sokka, and Zuko follow her earlier orders. Namely, the former restrained General Chen, and the latter two forced Ozai to approach her, before they retreated back to the sidelines.

Only she and Ozai stood on the courtyard. The same courtyard where she had had her Master's exam fight, all those years ago. Fitting that the same place where this all began would be where it would all end.

Azula just smiled, and waited. She knew Ozai would eventually feel the need to say something.

And so he did. "Congratulations, my daughter," he said, in a tone that reeked of arrogance. "You have successfully destroyed the Fire Nation."

Azula was momentarily re-gripped by her nervousness, when she heard Ozai's voice. She suspected the only reason Ozai hadn't freed himself already was because he was waiting for the chance to kill her. Shaking it off as best she could, she gave him a mock bow, and said, "I appreciate your praise deeply, Lord Father, but I am afraid it is unwarranted. The Fire Nation will prosper like never before."

She could almost feel his smirk. "Nobody will follow you or your treasonous brother. Even with the forces of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, you only won this battle through treachery and deceit."

Azula matched his smirk. She was waiting for him to say something like that. _My plan _will_ work._ "Are you suggesting my victory today was less than honorable, Lord Father?" She waited just the right amount of time, then continued, "Because, if so, I have a suggestion."

"Yes?"

"An Agni Kai, between you and me, for the country."

She hadn't told anyone about her plans for this moment, not even Toph. A huge wave of surprise and nervousness washed over those present, including Azula. However, she knew that nobody would dare interfere with her in this situation. For now, at least, the stage was all hers.

"Only firebenders can engage in the holy ritual of Agni Kai, daughter. You are not a firebender."

Azula made sure her tone was nothing but humble. "Respectfully, Father, an Agni Kai is a holy battle of fire_bending_. As long as I only use firebending, it should be perfectly permissible for me to participate in one." She looked him straight on, and gave him her sweetest smile. "Am I wrong?"

This brought the ambient conversation to a fever pitch. It died down after a minute, but Azula waited for Ozai to respond. And, eventually, he did, and responded as she knew he would. After all, she mused darkly, she was all but handing him her head on a platter.

"I cannot fight as I am now."

_Don't pretend you can't free yourself at any moment_, Azula thought, but it didn't matter. "Katara!" she called. It took a few seconds, but Azula eventually felt the impact of the cut ropes against the ground.

"I assume your soldiers know not to interfere in an Agni Kai?" Ozai asked, voice thick with sarcasm.

"They do now," Azula responded.

"Very well. Then I accept your challenge."

Ozai shouted some orders, and Azula heard and felt servants rushing about, gathering the formal Agni Kai attire and appointing judges. For her part, Azula ordered her own soldiers to not take one step onto the courtyard. She would have plenty of time later to justify her actions to them. After all, Ozai wasn't wrong—potential rebellion _would_ be a problem—and an Agni Kai, holy ceremony that it was, was the quickest, most efficient route to cutting discontent off at its stem, not to mention prove to the world that the Avatar was just as powerful as ever, even after one hundred years.

They'd keep any suspicions of ulterior motives to themselves, too, if they knew what was good for them.

After fifteen minutes or so, the formal attire had been gathered, the proper rituals had been conducted, and Azula and Ozai went through the opening motions.

Her heart was pounding far harder and faster than it ever had before. The goal she had been working toward for the last three years was finally in sight.

The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai.

Immediately, Azula felt a wave of fire screaming at her. She breathed in, breathed out, and parted it easily, gathered up the remains with both hands, separated it, and sent at least twenty fireballs right back at him. Tremors in the ground told her that he had dodged to the right, which Azula matched, easily avoiding his counterattack. To stop him from gaining momentum, she launched her own wall of fire, then ran away, correctly anticipating Ozai's advance.

For her plan to work, Azula would have to keep her distance.

The fight continued in much the same way for the next minute. They were sizing each other up, testing the other's strength and agility. A battle between two high-class benders was almost always decided by one attack—the rest of it was just preparation for that attack.

For Azula's part, the exchanges proved what she had already suspected—Ozai was more powerful than her. Avatar or not, he simply had far more experience than she did. Not to mention he was in the prime of his life while Azula's body was still maturing. Little by little, Azula could feel the pace slipping away from her, could sense her assaults turning into reactions, and then into desperate countermeasures. Little by little, her fear, long pent-up, started to leak out of her heart, threatening to overwhelm her.

Suddenly, she sensed that Ozai was quickly approaching her. He must have fired blasts of flame in such a way as to send him screeching toward her in midair, hands surely already forming a deadly kata.

Azula was no match for him in close-range combat. Her only option was to launch herself into the air as well, up and away from him.

And then—

She felt it.

A crackle in the air that could only signal one thing.

Azula had very few options in the air; she was already very much set on the course she was on. Her future location would be child's play to predict. And away from the ground, she couldn't even use her seismic sense to try and avoid the bolt of lightning.

Luckily, she was the Avatar.

As soon as the lightning erupted out of Ozai's fingers, she turned her Airbending senses to maximum, and the displacement of wind told her exactly where the deadly bolt was. As time slowed to a crawl, she turned her body over to her muscle memory, moved her arm—

And caught the lightning with her hand.

The pure, unbridled, _ki_ energy of the lightning felt like lava. With time as slow as it was, she could feel the impact as the lightning barreled its way through her arm, crashing against and destroying all in its way as it charged to her shoulder.

Then, just as Iroh had taught her, she _bent_ it, sending the searing _ki_ down into her stomach, then up to her other shoulder. Kneading it like clay, she prodded it up into her left arm, through her wrist, and into her fingertips.

And after briefly checking for his location with her Airbending, she released all of that _ki_ directly at Firelord Ozai.

Her only regret was not being able to see his expression.

_Precisely as planned._

Azula descended, slowly, feeling something akin to elation. When her feet touched the ground, she sensed that Ozai was still moving. Apparently, she had missed slightly.

_Well, no matter,_ she thought. She actually somewhat preferred getting in a few last words.

She walked up to him, thinking of and disposing of thousands of lines to say. As it turned out, she needn't have bothered.

"Congratulations," she heard him say in a wheezing, rasping voice. "You win."

Azula stopped, and stared at him, dumbfounded.

"I do hope," he went on, "you won't let the foreigners rape our lands and people."

All she could think to say was, "Indeed."

Firelord Ozai died at the end of the Day of Black Sun, leaving Avatar Azula with the realization that she didn't truly understand him.

* * *

And so the Battle of the Eclipse ended, and with it the Hundred Years' War, with the complete and total victory of the Alliance Army. Zuko was crowned Firelord to great applause, promising peace and recompense to the people the Fire Nation had oppressed, while citizens of all nations were ecstatic that the past century of conflict and bloodshed was finally over.

Azula would not be seen until the Peace and Reconciliation Summit a month later.

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**

* * *

**Author's Note: **I can't deny it gives me a certain sort of sick pleasure to make the climax of the original series the first chapter in this fanfic. But really, in this timeline, the battle's so pathetically onesided it's necessary for a number of reasons.

A _bu_ is an ancient Japanese unit of measurement (taken from the Chinese, as lots of ancient Japanese things were), that Wikipedia tells me is roughly equivalent to 3 millimeters. "Li, Shou, and Jun" are common names (an adaptation of the American idiom "Tom, Dick, and Harry").

I might as well say this now: This fanfic will have three main story arcs, sprinkled across the chapters. One will cover the period from the end of _Trapped_ to, well, this chapter. Another will cover the period from the end of this chapter to Azula's death. And the third will be a bit…special. It'll become clear soon enough, don't worry.

I have no idea how often I'll be able to update this, but for now, I'll say around once every two weeks, though quicker updates are quite possible.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you in the next one, too!


	2. The Blind Bandit

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 1.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**The Blind Bandit**

* * *

Approximately one month after her 'revelation' back at the South Pole, Azula found herself sitting in a stuffy arena surrounded by hundreds of men (and they were all men) shouting their lungs out with words that had, at most, a passing acquaintance with meaning.

Once she had somewhat gotten the hang of airbending, it quickly became apparent that Azula's next major task would be finding an earthbending instructor. She had figured it would be easy enough to find one of those in Ba Sing Se, until Iroh gave her some quite interesting information:

Apparently, there were reports of a _blind_ earthbender participating in, and winning at, some sort of underground fighting tournament in a town called Gaoling.

"Two questions," Azula had responded to her uncle. "One, reports from whom, and two, why haven't you told me this before now?"

"Reports from Earth Kingdom citizens we've been in contact with," Iroh had replied, completely failing to answer her first question. As for her second, "I thought it would be best if you focused on airbending, rather than demanding to see this earthbender."

At the time, Azula had still been too giddy from her success at finally airbending to argue with him. Now, he wasn't there for her to berate. He was off gallivanting across the Earth Kingdom with Zuko, leaving her in the care of Kalu (Hakoda's bastard son, resident physician, and their ostensible leader), Naya (Hama's top student and her new waterbending sifu), and Sokka (there because he insisted on "being a part of history"—Azula suspected that he was just jealous Zuko was getting to travel).

Needless to say, it had been a joyous trip.

"I am your host, Xin Fu," the host, apparently named Xin Fu, announced. "Are you ready for Earth! Rumble! Six!"

The entire crowd erupted into cheers; Sokka, sitting next to her, the loudest of them all. Azula covered her face with the _dou li_ straw hat she was wearing.

"Don't think you're the only one not happy to be here," Naya said tonelessly at her other side.

Azula moved her nose up and down, her replacement for rolling her eyes—nobody can live without a way to show their contempt. "You didn't _have_ to be my teacher, you know."

"I do my duty, even if the concept is foreign to you."

They didn't get along very well.

"Now, give a warm welcome to the terror from down under, the rock-hard newcomer who's already tearing up the Earth Rumble world, the one, the only, Boulder!"

_This'll be worth it_, Azula told herself. _If this gets you someone who can show you how to fight while blind, it'll all be worth it._

"The Boulder's gonna win this, _in a landslide_!"

…_You win this round, Earth Rumble._ She stood up, only to be shoved back into her seat by Naya.

"I refuse to suffer this alone," she told Azula.

Azula spent the next loud, boring, spirit-crushing minutes conjuring up elaborate revenge fantasies against her three companions.

"The Boulder knows how to put the _hurt_ in the _dirt_!" Sokka yelled.

Needless to say, he was the victim of the majority of Azula's fantasies.

However, eventually, _finally_, they got to what the announcer accurately described as 'the moment we've all been waiting for': "The Boulder vs. your champion, the _Blind Bandit_!"

Azula hated being dependent on her companions, but sometimes it was unavoidable. "So? What's he look like?"

Aside from Sokka's cheering, she got no response.

"_Well_?" she demanded.

"It's…not a he," Naya finally said.

"She's a little girl!" Kalu cheerfully added.

Azula scratched the cloth that had been tied around her eyes. _Congratulations, Earth Rumble, you have my complete and total unconditional surrender_, she decided. She stood up again, and was shoved back into her seat by Naya again.

"We've come this far," the woman said, sounding like she was speaking through gritted teeth.

Azula clenched her fists, almost wished she was back at the South Pole (but not really—the place was _cold_), but didn't resist.

Her sullen mood, however, was quickly lightened ten seconds later when she heard Sokka's agonized moans beside her, as well as Kalu's shocked "Holy crap."

"What just happened?" she asked Naya and Kalu.

"The Blind Bandit kicked the Boulder's ass," Kalu said, almost reverently.

"As if she could actually see him," Naya said, shock overcoming her usual emotionless monotone.

Azula's stomach started doing backflips.

The announcer called out an offer of a sack of gold to anyone who could beat said little blind girl.

Azula nudged Naya. "Do it."

"What!" the woman said, sounding offended.

"Go down there and find out who she is," Azula ordered.

"I'm _not_ going to fight her," Naya said. "And _don't_ act like you can order me around."

"What? No one dares to face her?" The announcer was feigning surprise.

"You don't have to fight her; just get her name!"

"You think she's going to just tell me?"

"She might!" Azula knew she was sounding desperate, but for once, she didn't care. She _was_ going to get this girl.

"Naya's right," Kalu broke in. "This is neither the time nor place. Just be patient. There must be someone who knows who she is."

"Are you kidding? Nobody knows who the Blind Bandit is," someone said, startling Azula and making her curse Kalu for being overheard. "Ever since Earth Rumble III, she's just shown up, kicked everyone's ass, and left."

"I heard she's a secret Earth Kingdom princess, getting some training before leading a counter-attack on the Fire Nation," said a man from Azula's opposite side.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong," said a man from above her. "She was abandoned in the wild and raised by badgermoles."

"Idiot," yet another man said in a tone of contempt. "Badgermoles wouldn't have taught her how to speak. No, she's the long-lost descendent of Avatar Kyoshi and she's going to free us from Ba Sing Se's tyranny like her ancestor did Chin's."

_That_ comment proceeded to cause a heated, stupid political debate that managed to be almost as annoying as their previous cheers and boos. Azula and her companions got the hell out of there.

* * *

Kalu and the others spent hours trying to find out who the Blind Bandit was, but they didn't get any leads whatsoever.

Though, to be honest, he was less interested in that and more interested in the extent to which the little Avatar _wanted_ to find out who she was. The ordinarily ice-faced Avatar was getting more and more angry, and more and more _depressed_, with each negative response from the people they asked. Even when she was trying to airbend, she rarely showed much other than grim determination.

"Man," Sokka yawned, as they walked away from their newest failure, "this is getting us nowhere."

"Thank you for that cutting observation," Azula said in response.

"Seriously, though," Sokka continued, "why would any of these guys know who she is?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Azula asked caustically.

"Well…" Sokka scratched his chin.

The little Avatar sighed. "Come on, let's—"

"Ooh! I know! How about that announcer guy, Bin Lu or whatever?"

Everyone, even Azula, turned to face him.

"What?" Sokka asked, seemingly confused.

Kalu grinned. Naya sighed. Azula yelled at him, "Why the hell didn't you come up with that earlier!"

After some further berating and a quick investigation, the four of them were soon off to the residence of the Earth Rumble announcer and owner, Xin Fu. They managed to get an appointment by claiming to be interested in participating in the next Earth Rumble.

Xin Fu's office was a small, dank thing, made smaller by how many people were in it: seven, counting the man's two guards. Kalu was surprised—he had expected that the owner of the Earth Rumble would be richer. Maybe he had a gambling problem or something.

"So, you say you want to be in the next Earth Rumble?" Xin Fu asked, face fixed into a permanent glare. "All of you?"

"Actually," Kalu said, easily slipping into the role of the group's 'face,' "I'm afraid that was a tiny lie. We just wanted to talk with you."

Xin Fu's expression grew darker, and he didn't say anything. Kalu took that as permission to go on.

"We were just interested in the identity of the Blind Bandit."

"You aren't the first," Xin Fu responded immediately. "I have no reason to tell you, and even if I did, I don't know. Now, get out, or—"

Xin Fu was soon interrupted by a torrent of water from Naya. Sokka brained one of the guards with his boomerang, while Kalu hit _just_ the right spots of the other with his dagger, and a little waterbending, to make him faint.

Xin Fu, now frozen to his office wall, glared down at the four of them. "Do you honestly expect to get away with this?"

"Hey, this is for the greater good," Sokka objected.

Xin Fu sneered. "Trying to draft her, eh? My life is the same, no matter whether the Fire Nation or Ba Sing Se rules."

Sokka started to argue with him, but Kalu just casually strolled to Xin Fu's desk and started rummaging through his papers.

"You _must_ know who she is," Naya said, forming a blade of ice and pointing it at the man's throat. "Now tell us."

Out of the corner of his eye, Kalu saw Xin Fu's expression turn into one of contempt. "What reason do I have to believe you won't kill me after finding out what you want to know?"

While Naya tried, unsuccessfully, to bully the information out of him, Kalu just hummed as he moved his hands about the man's dresser. Finally, just as he was starting to suspect Naya really _would_ slit the man's throat, he found it: a secret compartment, hidden at the bottom of one of the drawers.

"Oh-_ho_," he said, allowing himself a smile at Xin Fu's sudden look of terror. He drew out the papers the compartment had been hiding and glanced over them quickly. "How interesting. I wasn't aware the Earth Rumble was faked."

Sokka looked like someone had just killed his favorite seal-puppy. Meanwhile, Naya rolled her eyes and he heard Azula _harrumph_ behind him. Xin Fu, for his part, gritted his teeth and said, "Only the earlier rounds."

Kalu nodded. "To make sure the finals are between compelling characters. Fair enough, I suppose, but how would your fans feel if they found out?"

He looked expectantly at Xin Fu.

It didn't take long for the other man to fold.

"I assume you know of the Bei Fongs?"

* * *

Toph was in a good mood. The Earth Rumble was pretty much her only opportunity to fight, and she relished every moment of it. The resulting high was usually enough to get her through weeks of having to deal with her parents.

That was why, when Mother told her they were treating some guests, she took it in stride. At least, until she learned who the guests were.

"The _Avatar_?"

"Yes," Mother said, and Toph could discern a hint of caution in her voice. "Your father thinks she is hoping we might help fund the war against the Fire Nation."

_How can we know the former princess of the Fire Nation _wants_ to fight them?_ Toph thought. But she knew her parents were probably thinking the same. Nevertheless, the thought of having such a person in her house made her…

Not _nervous_. Toph didn't get nervous. More…_concerned_. Yes, that was the right word.

In any event, the next thirty minutes passed in a whirlwind of activity as Mother made her 'presentable' (Toph knew by now not to try any resistance), until the dinner started.

After the customary greetings were over with, one of the visitors, who had introduced himself as 'Kalu,' said, "I wasn't aware you had a daughter."

Toph clenched her fist under the table. She knew what was coming.

"Well, our family has its fair share of enemies," Father said, as if he were discussing the weather. "Since Toph is blind, she is unable to defend herself, and would be too tempting a target for our enemies to pass up if they knew of her. So, to protect her, we keep her existence a secret."

She had heard it all before, but Toph still had trouble keeping her face expressionless and her earthbending under control whenever her parents talked like that.

"Then I am honored you have trust enough in us to introduce her," the man, Kalu, quickly responded, tone the picture of politeness. But Toph could still hear a subtle undertone of falsehood in it. He was hiding something.

Dinner started, and the conversation was pleasant enough, but Toph could smell the tension in the air. For some reason, she felt like the Avatar's party was paying more attention to her than to her parents. In any event, nobody said anything interesting until the other man in the Avatar's party, Sucka or something, said, "So, you guys ever hear of the Earth Rumble?"

Toph immediately dropped her fork in shock, her thoughts running in a million different directions. Luckily, nobody seemed to notice, as Father just said, "I understand it's some barbaric sport unfortunately popular among the masses these days."

"Barbaric!" Sucka shouted, clearly offended. "I'll have you know—_ow_!"

"I apologize for my companion's incivility," Kalu said smoothly, his calm notes punctuated by Sucka's groans of pain. "We attended the most recent iteration a few days ago."

_Crap._ That cinched it. But if they were here for her, why were they beating around the bush so much? And come to think of it, why hadn't the Avatar herself said anything after her self-introduction?

"I see," Father said. "What were your impressions?"

"The combatants were more skilled than I had expected," the Avatar said.

Toph froze, ears tinged in anticipation.

"Is that so?" Father said.

"Yes. Particularly the champion. I'm thinking of asking her to be my earthbending sifu, actually."

Now _that_, Toph wasn't expecting. She wasn't sure what to think, as her father went on to say, "I would recommend against that. If you want an earthbending instructor, Master Yu is far more suitable than some savage—"

Toph slammed her fists on the table and stood up.

"I-Is something wrong, dear?" Mother was very startled.

"I'm full." Toph stalked outside, ignoring her parents' calls after her. She couldn't give a shit about how she looked at that moment.

* * *

As soon as the dinner started, Kalu confirmed to Azula that the Bei Fongs' secret daughter was, indeed, the Blind Bandit. The questioning about the Earth Rumble had been planned in advance, although Sokka naturally went off the reservation a bit. While Azula hadn't planned that the girl would run off, it wasn't entirely unexpected, either, so she was able to smoothly transition to the next phase.

"I apologize profusely for my daughter's insubordination," said the girl's father, Lao, in a tone that was almost submissive. It served to confirm his terror of Azula and her companions.

"Don't worry about it. I have my fair share of rude moments, too," Azula calmly replied, sipping her tea.

"That's one way of putting it," Kalu whispered to her. She ignored him.

"I promise," said the mother, Poppy, "I will get her back as soon as—"

"Why don't I talk with her?" Azula offered.

She waited a second, to give them time to soak that in, then continued. "We're not much different in age, and we're both blind, too. That might give us a chance to connect."

She could almost feel the two adults looking at each other in mutual worry and suspicion, but they weren't exactly in a position to refuse a request from the Avatar. "I suppose that makes sense," Lao eventually said slowly. "She's probably in the garden again. Shall I lead you there?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to interrupt your dinner," Azula replied easily as she stood up. "Just have one of your servants do it."

"O-Of course," Lao stammered.

"Try not to pointlessly beat this one up," Kalu whispered to her. She ignored him again, and reluctantly outstretched a hand for the servant to guide her.

She really hated being so dependent.

* * *

Toph knew it was stupid of her to be sulking. It's not like her father _meant_ to insult her like that. But she just couldn't bring herself to go back inside just yet.

She could see footsteps behind her. It was the Avatar.

"What're _you_ doing here?" Toph asked, meaning to sound indignant, but instead sounding more whiny than anything else.

"Hello to you too," the Avatar said, voice thick with annoyance.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Why are you angry at me? I'm not the one who insulted you."

Toph let out a long sigh. She wasn't exactly looking forward to a conversation with the former-Fire-Nation-princess-current-Avatar, but it seemed she didn't have a choice now; at least, if she didn't want to cause an international incident. "Fine. Sorry. But for the record, I wasn't annoyed by Father's 'savage' crack; I just…" she sighed. "I'm tired of them treating me like some kind of porcelain doll, is all."

The Avatar had the sense not to respond to that, at least.

"So why _are_ you here?" Toph asked again, after a few seconds.

The Avatar didn't say anything for a bit. Toph got the impression she was the type to carefully consider each word she said. "I was serious, about wanting you to be my sifu."

Some part of Toph knew she ought to be feeling honored or something, but she wasn't in any mood to be. "'Cause I won the Earth Rumble?" she asked, loading it with sarcasm.

"No, because I want to learn how to fight while blind."

_That_ brought her up short. "Huh?"

"When Firelord Ozai discovered I was the Avatar," she said, and Toph could hear a boiling undercurrent of rage below the seemingly businesslike tone, "he didn't just lock me up. He tore out my eyes. Now, I—" and suddenly, a crack appeared in her heretofore perfect script reading, "—I can't fight, at all. I need…no, I _want_ to fight again. And I think I need your help for that."

Something told Toph it was very hard for the Avatar to say that last line. But even after a minute, all she could think of in response was, "I'll think about it."

"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to decide immediately," the Avatar said after a pause.

That done, an uncomfortable silence soon developed. So Toph figured this was a chance to figure out something that had been bugging her. "By the way, Avatar," she said, "how'd you know I was the Blind Bandit?"

"Huh? Oh, that Earth Rumble announcer told me."

Toph raised an eyebrow. "Really? I might have to beat him up for leaking that."

"Well, technically, we kind of blackmailed the information out of him."

Toph blinked. "You blackmailed him."

"Yes."

"Xin Fu?"

"I believe that was his name, yes."

"Do you have _any_ idea—"

_Clang!_

_Aw, shit_, Toph swore.

"Sorry, Blind Bandit," she heard Xin Fu's voice through the metal box now encasing her. "It was fun while it lasted. Nothing personal."

* * *

They left a note, which Kalu elected to read aloud.

_Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lao Bei Fong,_

_I have kidnapped your daughter. If you bring one thousand gold pieces to the Earth Rumble arena by sundown tonight, I will release her. Come by yourselves, unless you wish for the destruction of her other senses, as well._

_Sincerely,_

_Xin Fu_

"The Avatar's gone, too," Naya said tersely.

"I _knew_ that guy was evil!" Sokka said, pumping his fist in the air.

"Yet he didn't mention her in the ransom letter," Kalu mused aloud, looking airily in the direction of the Bei Fongs. Both of their faces had turned white.

"I apologize, but we must take care of this matter as soon as possible," Lao stuttered.

"What are you saying?" Sokka almost yelled, sounding mightily offended. "We're going with you!"

"But the random note—"

"I don't think this Xin Fu character can be trusted," Kalu said, putting the note into his pocket. "It's entirely possible he'll kill your daughter whether or not you give him the money." He couldn't deny a certain satisfaction in seeing their faces turn even _whiter_ when he said that. "Besides, he won't give up a thousand gold pieces just because you bring along a few bodyguards. Right, Naya?"

Naya nodded, face steely.

"Right, then, we'd better get going." He started walking toward the arena, without waiting for Lao and Poppy to catch up.

Azula had wanted to kill Xin Fu when they were done with him_,_ Kalu recalled, though she'd said it in a half-joking tone. He and the others had quickly shot it down, of course, but he was wondering if she didn't have the right idea. Well, since the Bei Fongs were the richest family in town, they should have influence enough to put him in prison when all was said and done.

_Then again_,he thought, _wouldn't Xin Fu know that, too? In that case, just what game is he playing at?_

…_Damn, Azula is a lot better at this wheels within wheels stuff than I am._

* * *

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing!" Azula heard Toph shout at their captor.

"I've had a good run these past few years with the Earth Rumble," Xin Fu responded lazily, "but your friend, the Avatar, showed me that those days are numbered."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone your stupid tournament was fake," Azula drawled.

"_Stupid_!" Toph yelled.

"Be that as it may," Xin Fu said, "I'm getting out of here. You can consider the ransom money a going-away present, Blind Bandit, in exchange for all I've done for you."

"Try saying that while I'm on the ground!" Toph's yelling was beginning to hurt her ears.

"Nice comeback," Azula deadpanned.

"Who asked you?"

"_Be quiet_," Xin Fu commanded, "or I'll chop your arms off!"

"Well now, we can't have that, can we?" an unexpected voice said.

"Kalu?" Azula half-whispered.

Xin Fu growled. "I thought I told you to come alone, Lao Bei Fong."

"If my presence is unacceptable," Kalu smoothly replied, "then I suppose our negotiation is over. Come along, Lao, Poppy."

Azula grinned. His performance was a bit amateur-ish, but for a southern barbarian, it was pretty good.

"B-But, you can't—!" Lao stuttered.

"Unfortunately, Lao," Kalu said, sounding almost apologetic, "I have custody of the money, and therefore, the authority to negotiate. By the way, thanks for getting the money for me, Naya."

Azula could barely hear Naya's grunt of response through her almost-contained fits of laughter. Unfortunately she had never seen the Bei Fongs, which made imagining the looks on their faces difficult, but she tried her best regardless.

"Fine," Xin Fu eventually said, sounding very annoyed. "You can stay. But I'm not going below one thousand."

After a few seconds, Kalu responded with a "Very well," and Azula heard a case being tossed onto the ground, followed a few seconds later by a loud _thump_, presumably Toph getting out of her metal cage.

"What about the Avatar?" Kalu asked. Azula had to admit she was worried about that as well.

"Unfortunately, I'm given to understand the Firelord is offering a much greater reward than a thousand gold pieces for _her_ successful capture," Xin Fu said.

…_Crap. So that's his plan—use me to buy a high-ranking position in the Fire Nation. He probably wants revenge against Kalu and Naya, too._ She should've just killed him earlier. It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission, after all.

Luckily, Kalu had had the foresight to bring Naya along, and the sounds of a battle between the master waterbender and Xin Fu's guards soon filled the stadium. Azula was just feeling annoyed that she couldn't see the fight when some yelled "Brace yourself!", and the trapdoor at the bottom of her cage opened. Azula twisted in the air and managed to land without breaking anything.

"What—?" she started to say.

Another _thump_ next to her, followed by a voice. "So, still think I'm useless?"

Azula sighed. "Sokka." So _that's_ where he went. Still, she was slightly impressed he managed to get the trapdoor open, though she obviously wasn't going to tell him that. "How's the battle going?"

After a second, presumably spent by him looking at the combatants, Sokka responded. "Not well. Naya's outnumbered, and she's at a huge disadvantage with all this earth and no water around. Why the hell isn't the Blind Bandit helping out?"

_Because her parents are here, you idiot_, Azula thought. Sadly, there was no time to berate Sokka. Instead, she called out, "Hey, Toph! You gonna just run away?"

It wasn't Toph who responded—it was her father. "What are you talking about! What else should she do!"

Azula ignored him. "They only treat you like a porcelain doll because you let them, you know."

"That's—"

"Argh!" Toph shouted, interrupting her father. "Fine!"

Azula smiled to herself as she heard Toph run back to the ring, followed by the cries of pain by each of Xin Fu's guards, and finally the man himself.

_This day might not turn out so badly after all._

* * *

"…So now that you see who I really am, I hope it doesn't change the way you feel about me," Toph finished, her entire body feeling tied up in knots.

"Of course it doesn't change the way I feel about you, Toph," Father said. "In fact, it's made me realize something."

"It has?" She couldn't believe it! All her dreams were—

"Yes. I've let you have far too much freedom! From now on, you will be cared for and guarded twenty-four hours a day!"

Toph felt like her world was falling apart. She had to say _something_—

"Ah, unfortunately, I can't allow that," the Avatar broke in.

The words smashed Toph in the face like a brick. She was having trouble processing what had just happened.

Nobody had talked like that to her father before.

"_You_ mind your own business, Avatar!" Father said, sounding as angry as Toph had ever heard him.

"I take issue with that statement," the 'Kalu' man said. "Our business is the business of the entire world, which _does_ include you, Mr. Bei Fong."

Another brick. They were standing up to him, one of the most powerful men in the Earth Kingdom.

"You don't have the right to tell me how to raise my daughter!"

"Daughter, my ass!" the boy, Sokka, said. "In the Southern Water Tribe, we treat the animals we kill with more respect than you're showing her!"

Toph was reeling, almost lightheaded. They were arguing with Father, even expressing outrage at him. For _her_.

"Get _out_!" Father roared. "Get out or I'll—"

In an instant, Toph saw the Naya woman do some sort of attack. She couldn't be sure, but she suspected the woman was threatening her father in some way, because he wasn't saying another word.

"Certainly, Mr. Bei Fong," the Avatar said, "you have the right to raise your daughter as you wish. But in this world, rights are worth only as much as the power used to back them up. And as you can see, right now, we hold far more power than you do." She paused, to let the threat sink in. Toph could only listen with a stupid look on her face. "However," the Avatar eventually continued, "I am not without morals. I don't want to take your daughter away to fight the Fire Nation if she'd prefer to stay here. So," and Toph could sense _she_ was being addressed now, "Toph, would you rather go on an adventure with us, teach me earthbending, meet new people, fight the Fire Nation, and save the world? Or… stay here, and do nothing twenty-four hours a day?"

"Please," Mother suddenly said, on the verge of tears. "Toph's only twelve years old. She can't—"

"In one year, she'll be an adult," the Avatar interrupted, for the first time sounding annoyed. "Now then, Toph, what'll it be?"

Instinctively, Toph faced downward. The decision was being forced on her so suddenly, and she knew the Avatar and her friends were manipulating her. And she couldn't even imagine life away from her parents; her heart ached just thinking about it.

Still, though, she was already being driven crazy by her parents' rules. She knew she'd be miserable with a constant guard around. Plus, the prospect of being able to travel the world, fight Fire Nation soldiers, and save the planet filled her with the most excitement she'd ever experienced.

Besides… for the Avatar to do this much…

Toph had been thinking for a while, about how she really was the only one who could teach the Avatar how to see. And the idea of being needed for her unique skills wasn't exactly a bad feeling.

"Sorry, Mom and Dad," she said, surprising herself with the tears rolling down her face. "I just… I want to be me, you know?" She couldn't manage anything more.

"Toph…" Mother said, and for once, Toph was too caught up in her own emotions to figure out the nuances of her tone.

* * *

All in all, the discussion went better than Azula had anticipated. She hadn't won the Bei Fongs' hearts over, but promises to protect Toph, as well as a guarantee of authority over some Fire Nation colonies after the war, combined with just enough subtle threats, managed to convince them not to resist.

Not like they could've resisted much, anyway. They weren't far enough gone that they'd try negotiating with the Fire Nation, and money or no, few others would be willing to go against the Avatar.

They'd probably be an enemy of hers after the war, of course, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made.

And Azula would be willing to sacrifice almost anything to be able to fight again.

After confirming that they'd keep Xin Fu locked up for a _long_ time, Azula and the rest departed, Toph in tow. She had stopped crying by then, but Azula could tell she was still harboring some reservations—she was hanging back from the rest of the group. It would be a good idea to build their relationship up some. And… Azula might have felt a _little_ bad for snatching her away from her parents like that, maybe. So she slowed her pace to match the other girl's, and asked, "You sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah," Toph said, surprising Azula with an immediate answer, "I am. Besides, if you hadn't done that, I probably would've tried to join you anyway. So don't worry about it."

"O-okay," Azula responded, caught off-guard. Toph had sounded _happy_. Chipper, even.

"Still, though, that was quite some speech," Toph said, and she jabbed an elbow into Azula's side, causing her to stumble a bit. "Never seen someone talk down my father like that. Nice going, Hot Lips."

"H-Hot Lips?" Azula squeaked, offended at both the name and her own lame reaction to it. "What does that mean!"

"I think you can figure it out." Toph ran ahead, joining the others, leaving Azula standing by herself like an idiot.

…_Why do I feel like I have no idea what I just got myself into?_

* * *

**End of Chapter 2**

* * *

**Author's Note: **In Japan's Edo period, the age of majority for girls was 13 (for boys, it was 15 for some reason). I figured it was safe enough to assume the Fire Nation has the same custom.

I tried to keep the direct quotations from the show to a minimum, but some were unavoidable.

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission" was not invented by me; it's often attributed to Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, but apparently nobody knows the source for sure.

So, where are Azula and co. headed now that they've picked up an earthbending teacher? I know I, for one, can't wait to find out (not really)! But we'll all have to wait, because the next few chapters will be post-Ozai's defeat.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you continue reading!


	3. A Day in the Life 1

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 2.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**A Day in the Life (1)**

* * *

Azula yawned as she awoke from a dream she remembered perfectly. After all, even so long afterwards, she could still see in them.

She gave herself one moment for reflection, then kicked the person sleeping next to her.

"Wakey-wakey, Toph."

The twenty-two-year-old woman groaned and rolled over.

"This isn't the time for hibernation, rich girl. Today's schedule is jam-packed."

It took another groan, followed by another kick, but Toph eventually crawled out of bed. Well, as much as an earthbent patch of ground could be considered a 'bed,' anyway.

After the War, Aang had told her that it would probably be best to travel the world instead of living in one specific location. Thinking that was stupid, Azula instead went through many 'permanent' residences, trying to find the right balance between comfort, convenience of location, and not pissing off important people. She soon realized, however, that after having spent three years either living in a frozen wasteland or camping out, comfort wasn't that important to her; after acquiring her Flying Bison, Zenmetsu, the need for a good location diminished considerably; finally, enough contact with politics convinced her that almost all important people very well deserved far _more_ than a little offense.

Occasionally, the dead Air Nomad brat did have a point.

"So what do we have to do again?" Toph asked, yawning, as they cleaned themselves up as best they could.

"First, Ba Sing Se. It's time for my monthly inspection of Long Feng."

"This early in the morning?"

"I need to switch up the times I meet with Dai Li agents loyal to me, or he'll start to get suspicious. Plus, it keeps him off guard."

"Ah. Of course. So what are you gonna ask about?"

"Other than the usual status report, I need to find out if he's involved with the anti-colonial terrorists."

She could see Toph flexing her feet, a sign that she was mulling something over. "Just how long do you intend to keep him in power?" the other woman eventually said.

Azula sighed. "We've been over this. Kuei's a pushover; someone else is always going to rule with him on the throne. If not Long Feng, it'd be How, and he's a General—all he can think of is war. If neither, there'd be chaos."

"Plus, you can control Long Feng, right?"

"Yes," Azula replied with an edge in her voice, "I can. That's how I ensure there won't be another war."

They spent the rest of their time before leaving in silence. Azula knew Toph didn't particularly like, and wasn't particularly good at, being her conscience. But everyone had their part to play.

* * *

"So, I've been thinking," Toph said while they were riding Zenmetsu to Ba Sing Se.

"Did it hurt?"

"Try saying that where I can see you, Hot Lips."

"My pleasure."

"_Anyway_, I was thinking about some new earthbending moves."

"Yeah?"

"I've been experimenting lately in using more parts of my body. I've gotten some interesting results using my head."

"Maybe because that's a new sensation for you?"

"Huh?"

"Using your head."

"Oh, you're on a roll today, Hot Lips."

"It's a talent."

"_As I was saying_. It's a lot harder to bend earth with my head; it's kind of like trying to run through mud. But once I manage it, I get results much bigger and more…_substantial_, if that makes sense."

"We've been over this before, Toph. Nobody understands your earthbending metaphors other than you."

"And yet, you seem to learn my techniques just fine, even if you're worse at them."

"That's in spite of your supposed prowess at explanation, Dirt Foot."

"At least I can make nicknames that aren't crap."

* * *

It had been more than thirteen years since Azula lost her eyes, and more than a decade since she learned to see through bending, but she still couldn't read peoples' body language without eyesight. Maybe it was something you could only learn when you were young or something; Toph could do it just fine. So while the other woman wasn't very good at politics or strategy, she was invaluable in interpersonal communication, especially with someone untrustworthy.

And 'untrustworthy' was just about the kindest word one could use to describe Long Feng.

"As always, I am honored to host the Avatar, maintainer of this wonderful peace we continue to enjoy."

A small vibration in the back of the room, caused by earthbending—Toph's signal that he was lying. Of course, that kind of bullshit formality was always a lie, but Toph never tired of finding ways to annoy Azula without disobeying her.

"What is it that I can do for you?" Long Feng went on.

"Well, let's start with the state of the Earth Kingdom," Azula said.

The conversation progressed as these tended to. Long Feng was smart enough not to lie about confirmable facts, at least; his reports about rice production, taxes, revolt sentiment, and the like were always accurate. His lies tended to center around matters concerning the Dai Li itself.

The Dai Li was totally focused on infiltrating groups plotting rebellion: Lie. He still had no further information about the anti-colonial terrorists: Lie. He was perfectly satisfied with his current station and level of power: In a huge shocker, lie.

She wasn't going to accuse him to his face, of course, but it provided a good guide as to what she should ask her Dai Li contacts about.

She thanked him profusely and left after a half-hour conversation that seemed much longer than that.

It took around two hours to find all her contacts and speak with them. As she expected, the vast majority of Dai Li agents were spying on foreign countries instead of monitoring the home-grown threat. They admitted that they were giving aid to the anti-colonial terrorists, although they didn't have any proof. They didn't know what Long Feng's ultimate goals were, but that was to be expected, and Azula had some pretty good guesses anyway.

Sometimes, she was really tempted to just storm in and kill him. But you can't always get, or do, what you want. Unfortunately.

Overall, the day was going fairly well so far. As she went back to Zenmetsu, however, she found someone already waiting there.

"Message to Avatar Azula, from Firelord Zuko," the herald said.

_Oh, great_, she thought_._ "Yes?"

"'Please come to the Palace as soon as possible. We have an important matter to discuss.'"

_Meaning, he's getting overwhelmed by politics again_. "Understood."

* * *

"So we're heading to Zuko's place now?" Toph asked as they ate a late breakfast/early lunch on Zenmetsu's back.

"Nah, he can wait. I hear some unimportant Earth Kingdom village is having some sort of spirit problem. That should be dealt with first."

"Your favorite, huh?"

There were few things Azula hated more than the Spirit World. "It's the Avatar's curse."

"Some would call it a 'duty.'"

"Same difference."

* * *

Actually, that day's Spirit World adventure was relatively routine. The villagers' crops wouldn't grow, and where there's supernatural smoke, there's supernatural fire. It didn't take long in the Spirit World before Azula found the entity responsible.

The village had been growing, and to make more room for farms, they drove a number of small animals from their land. The animals' anger and grief at losing their homes had kind of…coalesced, and was punishing the villagers as some kind of primitive vengeance. It wasn't the first time Azula had run into that kind of thing, and this spirit was much less dangerous than the previous one of its type, so it wasn't a difficult job overall. All she had to do was find some new land for the animals to live on.

It was less easy to convince the villagers to help make the land suitable for the animals, but after a little hands-on diplomacy they readily agreed.

_If only all my problems were this simple_, Azula thought as she and Toph took off again, this time to go console Zuko.

* * *

"Sorry for calling you out here on such short notice," Zuko said.

Azula grunted in response. Even on Zenmetsu, the trip from the Earth Kingdom to the Fire Nation was long; it was already late in the day. She'd still be able to make her final appointment, but she'd have no time for training today.

"Anyway, I got a report from Zhao two days ago," her brother continued.

"And?" Azula drawled.

"He says the Imperialists are getting even more radicalized. He's doing his best to restrain them, but…"

"Yes?"

Zuko sighed. "The Sedition laws aren't exactly helping."

Azula cursed mentally. He was worrying about those again.

Unsurprisingly, not every Fire Nation citizen was happy with Zuko's focus on peace and reconciliation with the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes. At first, the opposition was mainly confined to a few hardliner officers in the military and a handful of power-hungry nobles. It gained momentum when the other countries insisted the Fire Nation contribute the vast majority of funds for reconstruction. The colonial compromise, which angered everyone, fueled it even more. But it was Zuko's perceived tepid response to the anti-colonial terrorists that gave the movement enough popular support to really put it into high gear.

Luckily, Azula had had the foresight to assign Zhao the task of infiltrating the Imperialists early on. His credibility was almost unquestionable to them, considering how he led the Northern Water Tribe invasion in the War. But even with her own agent in one of their top leadership positions, it was necessary to take further steps to contain them. Hence, the Sedition laws.

During Ozai's reign, it had been against the law to even _talk_ about politics unless you were specifically given permission. After taking over, Zuko had abolished almost all restrictions on political speech. Two years later, Azula managed to convince Mai to have a talk with her, and for the first and last time, they spoke as one to convince Zuko to nip the Imperialist problem in the bud before it started another war.

All it took was one execution of a prominent high-ranking Imperialist to make people get the point: Criticizing the Firelord's domestic policy is okay; criticizing his foreign policy isn't; advocating his overthrow _definitely_ isn't.

But practically every time she met with him afterward, Zuko expressed reservations about the Sedition laws. His stated reasons were always different, but the _real_ reason, which he never actually said, remained the same: 'It's too much like what my father would do.'

"_I do hope," Ozai went on, "you won't let the foreigners rape our lands and people."_

Azula shook her head. _The Imperialists taking over would only encourage that_, she reminded herself_._

"Are you suggesting," she said slowly, "that the Imperialists are stronger _with_ the Sedition laws than without them?"

"Not stronger, just more radical," Zuko said.

"Oh, so instead of just wanting to make you a figurehead, now they want to _kill_ you? How horrible."

"I'm just saying—"

"I know what you're saying. The point of the Sedition laws isn't to convince anyone you're right, it's to prevent your opposition from coordinating effectively."

"I know that!"

"And yet you apparently need to be constantly reminded."

A testy silence followed.

"Fine," Zuko said, in a tone that ensured they'd be talking about this again the next time they met. "How's your investigation of the anti-colonial terrorists going?"

Now it was Azula's turn to sigh, as much to give her time to think as anything else. She was always careful about what kind of information to give Zuko—if he learned too much about what Long Feng was doing, she didn't trust him enough not to cause an international incident.

"It's very difficult to track guerrilla fighters, especially when they're earthbenders, and Jet learned a lot from his early mistakes. I've been working with the colonial governors on defensive tactics, so the effectiveness of their attacks has decreased. However, until we get some sort of lead, I won't be able to take the offensive."

"No luck in finding anyone willing to inform on them for you?"

"Oh, they're willing, believe me. But that Jet is a paranoid little rat—anyone we capture he gives up on. If only I had sent in someone to infiltrate from the start…" Azula started reaching toward her eye socket to pick at it before restraining herself. She had almost eliminated that nervous habit, but it still resurfaced occasionally.

"Well, keep your eyes, er, senses open. He'll mess up again eventually. Nobody's perfect."

Azula grunted. She had her own plans for forcing Jet out into the open—a few of the seeds she'd planted in the Dai Li were due to sprout soon—but she decided that it was better for Zuko not to know about _that_ plan.

They talked a bit about other countries and minor domestic issues, before Azula decided she was about to run late for her final appointment and got up to leave.

Which was when Zuko asked a question she never expected him to ask.

"How are _you_ doing, Azula?"

Azula froze. She then spent a full minute trying to decide whether to lie or not, or even if she _knew_ what would be a lie and what would be the truth, before she decided _Screw it._

"I'm not doing what comes naturally to me. But I've been convinced that's probably for the best…for the world and for me. So I'm hanging in there."

Without letting Zuko say anything else, she left.

* * *

"How was Zuko?" Toph asked as they rode Zenmetsu to their final destination. Azula typically spoke with Zuko alone, at his request, and she didn't mind because she knew he wouldn't lie.

"Same as always. He's in way over his head, but Mai deals with most of it anyway, and he's slowly learning."

Silence for a few seconds. Then Toph said:

"I'm surprised to hear you praise her like that."

Azula tightened her grip on Zenmetsu's fur. The beast made a small groan of annoyance.

"Our relationship is what it is. That doesn't stop her from being extremely competent at what she does."

"Roundabout way to put it."

"Would you prefer 'I hate her and she hates me, but she's damn good at court politics?'"

"Um, yes, duh. How long have we known each other again?"

Azula sighed and lay face-down.

* * *

Azula's final stop of the day was somewhat special. It was something she didn't allow herself to do too often, either because she was too busy or for reasons she preferred not to think about.

A personal visit.

Ty Lee's circus was back in the Earth Kingdom after three years in the Fire Nation and they were having a special all-day performance which Azula was specifically invited to. She knew spending the entire day there would send some wrong signals but, for whatever reason, she decided she might as well attend the last hour or so.

As the Avatar, of course, she got a special seat front row and center. Not that she needed it, or even particularly wanted it, but that's life for you.

Ty Lee, at least, seemed to be excited from what Azula could tell.

Throughout the performance, Azula saw Toph shifting uncomfortably in the seat next to her. Since Toph couldn't see through airbending, she was far more limited in some cases than Azula, and never enjoyed being reminded of this.

"I'm surprised you're not spouting off rants about how boring circuses are," Azula commented halfheartedly at one point.

She had meant it to be a light jab, so she was surprised at Toph's response.

"I know this is important to you."

They watched the rest of the circus in silence.

After the performance, Ty Lee guided Azula and Toph to her private room, before embracing Azula in a tight hug.

"It's so great to see you again! It's been forever!"

"Two months," Azula corrected, in a somewhat nervous tone.

"Great to see you again, too, Toph!" Ty Lee said to the other woman.

"Wish I could say the same, but, well," Toph said lightly, gesturing at her eyes, and Ty Lee laughed as she always did at this comeback. They got along surprisingly well together.

"Anyway, you have to fill me in on the gossip about all the important people you deal with. And, remember," Ty Lee's tone suddenly turned serious, "_no politics_!"

"Yes, yes," Azula said, and she and Toph proceeded to tell her all about the various indiscretions of the world's powerful people, from Kuei's long disappearances before being discovered with his stupid bear, drunk, in some random bar ("And I swear, this time the bear was drunk, too!"), to the newest development in the unending saga of Sokka and Yue's marriage ("If you judge it by amount of time spent with each one, you could convincingly argue Sokka loves Zuko approximately ten times more than Yue"). From there, the conversation naturally turned to various hilarious anecdotes from the previous two months ("And then Zenmetsu threw up on him!"), and as always, an hour-long rant from Ty Lee about the stupidity of her newest ex-boyfriend ("He called me 'Ty.' _Ty_! What was I _thinking_?").

It was another kind of activity that didn't come naturally to Azula. But unlike the path of the Avatar, which she occasionally cursed, she never regretted this one.

* * *

"Hey, Toph," Azula said as they rode Zenmetsu back to their home, as much as a small earthbent hut can be called a 'home.'

"Yeah?"

"Do you sometimes…"

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Oh, come on."

"It's stupid." Azula lay her head on Zenmetsu's back.

"Tian above, just say it."

"No."

"Say it or no metalbending instruction for a month."

"Fine." Azula took a deep breath. "Do you sometimes wonder if…what we're doing really matters?"

Toph didn't respond, but Azula knew it was an invitation to continue.

"When I gained the Avatar State, I saw the cosmos that exists beyond this world we live in. It was…immense. I just don't know if…"

"You're right. That is stupid."

"Oh, screw you."

"'Oh, space is big! I'm scared, Toph!'"

Azula airbent a gust of wind in her direction.

"Hey! I could've fallen off from that!"

"'Oh, wind is strong! I'm scared, Azula!'"

They kicked and punched each other the entire two-hour flight back to their hut.

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**

**

* * *

**

**Author's Notes: **First off: I'm _really_ sorry it took as long to write this as it did. I don't have any excuse. Various recent events have convinced me of the need to continue my writing practice, however, so expect no more long delays like this.

Toph's "Tian above": "Tian" was basically the chief god of imperial China (it literally means "Heaven" or "Sky"), so it seemed appropriate as a bit of Earth Kingdom swearing.

One interesting thing about this fic is it's somewhat of a challenge to write Azula at 24, without having written anything about the previous 10 years; it makes it fairly hard to grasp what she should be like. I'm relying mostly on intuition here, so forgive me if my interpretation of her character differs from yours.

A cookie for anyone who can guess where I got 'Zenmetsu' from.

Anyway. Next chapter, you can expect the beginning of the mysterious third story arc I referred to in chapter 1's author notes. It should be fairly short, so expect it in a week at most. After that…we'll see.

Thanks a lot for reading, sorry again for the delay, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	4. Enlightenment, Prologue

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 3.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Enlightenment, Prologue**

* * *

It had been almost a year since the Peace and Reconciliation Summit. Thanks to Azula's hard work—though she supposed others, especially Kanna, Iroh, and even Long Feng had played a part—an uneasy peace had returned to the land. The colonial issue was still a major outstanding problem, admittedly, but it wouldn't blow up for a while, so it was certainly _permissible_ for Azula to take a little time off.

Still, though, as Azula scaled one of the mountains of the Eastern Air Temple, bending handholds and footholds into the rock as she went, she was finding it more and more difficult to convince herself this was a good idea.

* * *

"The Eastern Air Temple?" Azula asked Aang, crossing her arms. "Why go there?"

"There's someone waiting there who can help you," the century-old kid explained, smiling his wide grin as usual.

"How do you know that?"

Aang looked to the side. "I, um, sort of had a vision of it, right after the War. I figured I should wait to tell you until after the situation had pretty much calmed down, so…"

Azula tilted her head slightly. "You had a vision. Of someone waiting in the Eastern Air Temple. Who could help me."

Aang nodded, showing a rare amount of unease.

"Couldn't it have been somewhere more convenient? Like, say, anywhere that's _not_ an uninhabited mountain range?"

"Well, location is pretty important for this sort of thing."

"What's so special about the Eastern Air Temple?"

Aang looked down. "Whenever I try to explain spiritual stuff to you, you get mad at me."

Azula sighed.

"Anyway, do you remember what you were like at the South Pole right before you started airbending, and at the North Pole at the end of its invasion?"

Azula nodded slowly. Aang, Roku, and Hatsuna had visibly reacted when she told them about those times (though she didn't remember them herself, and Iroh had only told her about the South Pole incident after the North Pole one had occurred). Of course, they refused to tell her anything they might have known.

"The person at the Eastern Air Temple should be able to teach you how to control that."

Azula had to admit, when Aang tried, he _did_ know how to get her attention. "Are you sure?" she asked, a bit of excitement managing to creep into her tone.

Aang smiled one of his widest smiles yet. "I'm not sure of anything—"

"Are you _sure_?"

"As sure as I am that you exist."

Azula sighed again, but grinned a bit anyway. "Good enough, I suppose."

* * *

Azula spent the last half-hour of her three hour climb combing through her memories for any clue of how to kill a spirit. She couldn't think of anything, then realized that she could always research in Wan Shi Tong's library. Somewhere in that stupid owl's mountain of books _had_ to be information about killing an annoying dead Air Nomad brat.

She was already formulating her excuse as to what non-violent use she could put such information to when she finally reached the summit. She caused a few vibrations with earthbending to get the lay of the land, and couldn't help gasping a little at the sheer grandeur of the place. Though Aang had already showed her the place in the Spirit World, sensing the temple in the Material World was a much different experience. Nothing seemed truly real in the Spirit World, after all.

_Just how did a bunch of Air Nomad technophobe hermits make something like this? _Azula wondered, not for the first time. What confused her the most was the stone staircase she was presently standing on, which led to a small altar Aang had said her mysterious helper would be waiting on. She couldn't imagine any non-earthbender carving something like that. Did the Air Nomads who built this place hire some?

These and other thoughts went through Azula's mind as she rested from the long climb. Eventually, though, the lure of the power to destroy armies became too much to withstand, and Azula started walking toward the stone altar.

Despite her doubts, her expectations had built to a fever pitch by the time the altar entered her visual range. So when she didn't sense anyone on it, she felt completely justified in shouting some particularly vicious profanity, much of it directed at Aang.

"Your creativity is quite impressive," someone said.

Azula immediately went into a defensive stance. "Who's there!" She _still_ didn't sense anyone; where the hell was he?

"I am Guru Pathik," the mysterious man answered. "Since you are the Avatar, it appears my vision has come true."

"Why can't I sense you!"

"Hm?" The man, apparently named Pathik, seemed genuinely confused. Azula didn't sense any malicious intent, so while thinking of an appropriate course of action, she managed to refrain from attacking randomly. But her thoughts were interrupted when Pathik spoke up again. "Ah, my apologies. I wasn't aware you saw through bending. You likely cannot see me because I am not moving. Allow me to rectify that."

Suddenly, she could see a man sitting on the altar, just as Aang had said, clear and bright as the sun. This caused a number of questions to fly through Azula's brain but she managed to pick one out. "How did you know how I see?"

"As you well know, humans do not all see things in the same way," Pathik responded without hesitation. "Some see light with their eyes. You see vibrations with your bending. I see spirits. Your spirit shows me that you are the Avatar, that you see with earthbending and airbending, and much else besides."

Azula was used to weirdness like that from Aang, but it was slightly disconcerting to have someone bring the same sort of logic into the Material World. Then again, if he was going to help her master her Avatar powers, maybe that was to be expected. He was where Aang said he would be, at least, so Azula decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Out of politeness, she walked to the altar herself and sat down in front of him. "All right. Who exactly are you?"

"As I said before, I am Guru Pathik. I suppose you could call me a spiritual brother to the Air Nomads."

"So…where are you _from_, then?"

"Across the sea."

Azula tried to figure out if he was joking. "There _is_ no 'across the sea.'"

"If you've never been there, how do you know?"

Azula bit her lip in an effort to hide her irritation. "Okay. So you're from…across the sea, and you used to be with the Air Nomads. What did you do after they were wiped out?"

"I had a vision of aiding the Avatar, so I came here."

"…And then what?"

"I waited for the Avatar." Pathik's voice was completely calm.

"For a hundred years?"

"To an enlightened one, all lengths of time are equally instantaneous."

Azula bit her lip again. This guy had done what she thought was impossible: spout even more bullshit than Aang. _Wonder if that's what he means by 'spiritual brother to the Air Nomads'…_

"So," Azula said, deciding that moving the topic away from Pathik himself would be wise, "to get to the point. I'm given to understand you can teach me to control the full extent of my powers as the Avatar. So…how can I do that?"

"You must gain balance within yourself before you can bring balance to the world," Pathik said, still in his annoyingly calm, measured tone.

Azula fought hard to keep her temper down, but a bit of annoyance managed to leak into her voice anyway. "That didn't answer my question."

"To be more specific, it was the right answer to the wrong question."

Azula clenched her fists. _Don't get mad, don't get mad. If he can teach you how to destroy armies it'll all be worth it. _"Fine. How do I gain balance within myself, then?"

"First, drink this." Pathik set some sort of bowl on the ground and pushed it toward Azula. Mentally shrugging, Azula decided she should probably just go with the flow, so she picked up the bowl and drank it.

The vilest and most disgusting potion ever concocted by mankind passed across Azula's lips. She spat it out immediately, threw the bowl of evil and malice away, and shouted "Are you trying to poison me!"

"Onion and banana juice," Pathik said, and as Azula heard a long, loud sipping sound, she barely managed to fight the urge to throw up.

* * *

After enjoying a few sadistic laughs, Pathik had assigned Azula to spiritually purify herself by whatever means she preferred before beginning his tutelage. It took a bit for Azula to remember the rituals Li and Lo had taught her, all those years ago, and she probably made a number of mistakes while reenacting them, but she couldn't bring herself to care about which order to wash her face and hands in, and she couldn't imagine the Avatar Spirit caring either.

Pathik had told her to meditate after the rituals until he came to get her. So she did so. And continued doing so. For a long time. She was about to succumb to fatigue, anger, and annoyance when she finally heard Pathik's voice again.

"Do you feel purified now?" he asked cheerfully.

"Like a diamond." Pathik either didn't notice the sarcasm or didn't care, because he didn't comment on it.

"Good! Then come with me." Pathik immediately started walking away, and as Azula struggled to keep up, he began talking again. "In order to master the Avatar State, you must open all the Chakras."

"What exactly is the Avatar State?"

"Hm? Were you not told by a previous incarnation?"

Azula cursed Aang under her breath.

"In the Avatar State, you channel the power and wisdom of all the previous Avatars into your body," Pathik said.

Azula nodded, trying to hide her enthusiasm. "Okay. So, what are Chakras, then?"

"That is why we are walking here." He stopped, and Azula realized they had arrived at some sort of pond or creek. "The water flows through this creek much like the energy that flows through your body. Our Chakras are like these pools, where the water swirls around before moving on."

Azula nodded. She didn't really believe him, but for now decided to play along. "So what do you mean by 'opening' my Chakras?"

"Ah. You see, in the course of life, we are afflicted with certain emotions that block the paths between the Chakras. If we take those away, the energy can flow through our bodies pure and clean."

"So…" Azula said slowly, "as long as I get rid of certain emotions, I can control the Avatar State?"

"Precisely."

_Well, that sounds easy enough; I have to do that already to bend lightning, after all_, Azula thought.

"Eliminating emotions is far more difficult than merely controlling them," Pathik said lightly.

It took a second for that sentence to process, but as soon as it did, Azula jumped backward.

"What is it?" Pathik asked.

"Did you…did you just read my mind?" For the first time in a long time, Azula was feeling something akin to fear.

"As I said before, I see peoples' spirits. Come along, now, no time like the present. Of course, time itself is an illusion anyway."

Azula tried to force herself not to think as she haltingly walked behind Pathik, suffering his annoying laughter.

"And by the way, fear is one kind of emotional muck you'll have to get rid of, so for practice, try clearing it away now."

_I fucking hate the Spirit World and everything involved with it._

Guru Pathik's laughter continued to echo in her ears.

* * *

**End of Chapter 4**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **And thus, the previously mysterious third major story arc begins. As you can probably tell, I feel Guru Pathik was a terminally underused character in the original series. I aim to rectify this.

As you might be able to guess, each chapter in the "Enlightenment" arc will focus on one Chakra. Yes, this is a pretty big experiment, and yes, it might end up blowing up in my face. But if you don't try, you'll never know, right?

Azula's short description of her purification ritual taken from somewhat vague memories I have of similar rituals before entering a Shinto shrine.

Also, some news! I finally managed to write a semi-outline for this thing. Among other benefits, it also means I finally have an accurate prediction for chapter count. Barring unforeseen complications, _The Adventures of Avatar Azula_ will be 26 chapters long. Assuming current trends hold-and if anything, future chapters will likely be longer than these first 4-that'll mean I'll have written over 100,000 words of this fic by the end. I know that's not anywhere close to the longest fanfic around, and I kind of cheated by not having just one continuous storyline, but still, the thought is a little scary.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	5. The King of Omashu

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 4.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**The King of Omashu**

* * *

After gaining an earthbending sifu and learning the basics of her technique for seeing, Azula's next job was to visit Ba Sing Se and the Northern Water Tribe to solidify relations and plan war strategy. The direct way would be to sail straight to the Earth Kingdom capital; however, Azula, Hakoda, and Iroh had decided it would be wise to stop by Omashu via land first. That effectively autonomous city and its King Bumi would be a great aid to the war efforts. Azula's task was to inform him of recent events personally and convince him to throw his full power and authority behind the Avatar.

* * *

"So what kind of place is Omashu?" Sokka asked Toph as their group of five walked the long, thin, twisting path to the city proper.

"I spent almost all my life locked up in my house. I barely know my own city."

"Omashu is the second-largest and second most powerful city in the Earth Kingdom," Azula said as if she was reciting a memorized speech. Which she was. "It was Ba Sing Se's major rival before unification, and even now, while it technically submits to the Capital's authority, its king is basically fully autonomous. Aside from this, it's most well-known for its mail-delivery system."

"Mail-delivery system?" both Sokka and Toph asked, with a tone conveying an arched eyebrow.

"Apparently it's quite efficient," Azula deadpanned.

"While that was fascinating," Kalu said, "since we're trying to convince King Bumi, it might do us good to know a bit more about him. Any information you can give us about that, Miss Library?"

Azula chose to ignore his pointed invitation to argue. "Bumi is a distant cousin to the previous king who took the throne after almost all the royal family was killed by the Fire Nation. He tends to keep to himself, so not much is known about him."

"I overheard Dad saying his guards are made up of former prisoners he freed for various random reasons," Toph offered.

Azula coughed. "Yes, well, there are a lot of such rumors about him, but since he's managed to hold off the Fire Nation's attacks for over eighty years, I can't imagine any of them are true."

Toph grumbled. "Whatever."

"Walk as I instructed you, Azula," Naya commanded. "You need to practice your waterbending fundamentals as often as possible."

Azula cursed under her breath and shifted her walking stance. Naya was a big believer in living what you learn, and apparently was worried that Azula's lightning-fast advances in waterbending weren't quite fast enough. Azula could see her point—though she hated the Water Tribeswoman so much she'd never say that to her face—but it wasn't exactly easy overriding more than eight years of firebending-inspired movements.

As they approached Omashu's gate, Azula could sense one of the guards bending a rock over one of her companions' heads. Her seismic sense wasn't nearly as good as Toph's yet, but she could easily make out obvious stuff like that. "State your business!" he shouted.

"The Avatar," she said, "here to meet with King Bumi."

* * *

"It's an honor to host the Avatar," the old man said, "so to mark the occasion, I've served snail-skunk meat. Very much a delicacy."

Delicacy or not, one bite produced some of the foulest tastes Azula had ever had the displeasure of encountering. But instead of complaining, she kept her mask on and ate as much as she could stand. This was an important diplomatic meeting. Important diplomatic meetings starting with crappy feasts weren't exactly out of the ordinary.

"Young man next to the Avatar," Bumi said.

"Yes?" Sokka's voice was half a squeak.

"That's an interesting hairstyle you've got there."

Azula could almost see Sokka's chest puffing up. "Why, thank you. Not many people appreciate it."

"Indeed. Would you like a pony to go with your tail?"

Kalu started laughing, as Sokka tried desperately to convince him it was a _wolf_-tail. Azula was slightly confused, but mostly annoyed.

"Well," Bumi said, yawning, "all these good jokes are making me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay."

Okay, that was _it_. "My apologies, King Bumi, but we haven't actually talked about anything yet."

"Nonsense! We've talked about food, fashion, the best way to ward off cockroach-ants—"

"I meant about the _war_, King." A larger amount of venom was leaking into Azula's tone with each word.

"Working? Are you applying for a job with me?"

A second passed in silence.

"We're in serious trouble," Sokka whispered.

"This guy is a few rocks short of an avalanche," Toph added.

Previously, Azula had assumed his craziness was an act to catch people off guard. Now, she was inclined to agree with them.

"Any bright ideas?" she whispered. A collective silence met her. She sighed. "Okay, look, King Bumi," she said, her pleading tone not entirely an act, "we need your help to defeat the Fire Nation. So—"

"Oh, is that all you wanted? Sure, that's no problem."

Azula sat frozen for a second. _Is it really going to be this easy?_

"However!"

_Naturally._

"Before I lend my aid, the Avatar will have to complete three deadly challenges.

"What?" Azula cursed herself for saying that out loud.

Bumi said lightly, "If the Avatar can't best me, what hope will she have to best the Firelord?"

_That…those have nothing to do with each other…_ But Azula knew it would be futile. Her common sense told her to decline and get the hell out of this city and away from this insane asylum reject, but her stubbornness told her to stay. "Fine, sure, three challenges. What are they?"

"Now, now, no need to rush through life. You should take the time to relax and enjoy your surroundings. Such as the extremely pleasant scent emanating from this delicious food."

Azula was then treated to the sound of a very loud, disgusting snort, which was presumably Bumi taking a long, deep breath.

"We should go," Naya whispered.

"Agreed," Toph added.

"We've come this far," Azula said through gritted teeth. "One more day couldn't hurt."

"Can't know for sure," Kalu said in a lilting tone, despite it being a whisper.

* * *

"We have no reason to expect that man to hold up his end of the bargain," Naya said when they had all settled down in the room Bumi had given them.

Azula sighed. She didn't want to get in an argument when she didn't even fully believe in her own position, but as usual Naya was giving her little choice. "This city's been made to suffer by the Fire Nation as much as anywhere else. He has no reason _not_ to help us."

"But that guy's totally cuckoo!" Sokka said with his usual grace.

"Hardly surprising, giving his entire family was killed," Kalu remarked.

"If it was me," Toph said with a puffed-up air, "that'd just make me want to tear the Fire Nation apart stone-by-stone."

Azula coughed.

"Er, present company excluded."

"Anyway," Azula said, deciding to get back to the original subject, "staying a night here isn't a bad idea in itself anyway. We can always leave tomorrow depending on how it goes."

"If he lets us," Kalu said in a strange tone.

The question stopped Azula short. She internally smacked herself for not considering that possibility. "You think he might try to sell us out?"

Kalu's silence served to communicate a shrug.

"Don't listen to him," Sokka yawned, "Kalu's just being weird again."

"Even so," Azula said, "we should probably set up a watch for tonight."

That produced groans from Sokka and Toph (especially when Azula said she had to sleep the whole night to be prepared for the challenges), accompanied by Kalu's laughter and Naya's usual stony silence, but Azula snapped at them and got them to play along.

_You can never be too careful_, Azula reassured herself.

* * *

Azula woke up to the sound of the wall behind her being earthbent down.

"The King is ready to see you now," a voice behind her said. "Come with me."

Azula shed her drowsiness as quickly as she could, then realized she couldn't hear or sense anyone else. "Where are my companions?"

"The King will release them if you complete your challenges."

"What!" Azula practically shouted, her anger overriding her common sense. She might not particularly care about any of them, but they were _hers_, damn it. Besides, how the hell did he get by the watch without her waking up? "Where are they!"

"He didn't specify," the guard said quickly and evenly. "Now, come with me."

Azula controlled herself. This random guard wouldn't be able to change anything, after all. So saving her rage for Bumi himself, she followed the guard outside into a hallway.

"First, Avatar," she heard Bumi say, and prepped herself for some verbal sparring, "what do you think of my new outfit? I think it's quite snug and fitting, but I'd like your honest opinion."

Azula's mouth was open to offer some cutting remark, and it stayed that way without actually forming any words.

"Well?"

"…I'm _blind_."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that. I forgot."

Azula's fingernails were cutting gashes into her palms. _Don't kill him, don't kill him, you still need his help._ "Why did you take my companions away?"

"Oh, I thought I would help you out by giving you some extra motivation. Don't worry, no need for thanks. Anyway, shall we begin the first challenge?"

Silence reigned.

"What is it?" Azula eventually asked.

"Actually, I haven't thought of one yet."

Azula was getting so angry small flames started to lick her skin, almost like one of those 'auras' Ty Lee always prattled on about. She meditated through breathing, and somehow managed to will some of the rage away, one small bit at a time.

"Ah, got it!" Bumi finally said. "Okay, this is a good one. Come with me, Avatar."

Bumi started walking away. Azula roughly shrugged off one of the guard's attempts to lead her and followed the mad king on her own. Inside the farce the world had suddenly turned into, Azula decided the best place to begin her campaign of re-control was herself.

_Is everyone in the Earth Kingdom functionally insane?_

* * *

Bumi led her to the front doors of the palace and said, "This is your first test, Avatar."

Silence.

"…I'm _blind_."

"Oh right. My apologies. Anyway, you know of our mail-delivery system, right?"

Azula clenched her teeth. "Yes."

"While I have a lot of faith in it, I have a particularly important scroll I'd like the head of the guards to have. Would you give it to him yourself, to make sure it gets there safely?"

Azula just stood there dumbly as one of the guards put a scroll into her hand. "The first challenge is to be a _carrier hawk_?"

Bumi suddenly struck a contemplative tone. "It would be remarkably convenient to have wings, wouldn't it?"

"That's not what I—" Azula stopped herself, and sighed. "Fine. Where is—"

The door suddenly got earthbent shut.

Ten meditation breaths later, Azula decided _not_ to burn the palace down and instead went out to gather information as to where the captain of the guards was located...

…only to be told that there _wasn't_ a captain of the guards.

Joy.

Azula went back to bang on the palace's front doors and shout. It was useless. Leaning against the wall of rock, Azula decided to work things out rationally.

In order to find Bumi and kill him, she had to enter the palace. But this entrance was locked, and she didn't know where any others might be, so she had to find some way to infiltrate the palace. A disguise wouldn't work, and she was unlikely to be able to make one herself anyway, so what else—

_The mail-delivery system!_

As Azula waited by one of the delivery ramps for a suitable package, she decided to practice the seismic sense Toph was teaching her. It was difficult to get into the right mindset, though, and she probably made a number of misreads: an animal that seemed to be a squirrel-frog at first until she realized it had to be someone's pet rat-dog; a wagon that the vibrations suggested had nine wheels; even a set of impacts that she could've _sworn_ were those of a human before they dashed up a wall and across some rooftops. But, while talent might make perfect, practice makes that perfection better, as Oz—

…well, what did it matter _who_ told her that? At any rate it was true, as Azula's slow but sure advances in earthbending sight proficiency demonstrated.

Eventually, some guy rhapsodizing about his cabbages approached the delivery guard with a wagon, talking about it being a delivery to the palace. Cabbages were un-ideal but good enough, and with airbending serving as an effective distraction, Azula managed to dive inside the mass of cabbages with relatively little fuss.

As soon as the somewhat bumpy ride to the palace finished, Azula jumped out, and immediately started looking—

"Ah, nice of you to drop in, Avatar."

—for…him.

"Okay, look," she said, hardly bothering to put on polite airs for Bumi. "I asked around, and there _isn't_ a captain of the guard. So you can take this letter," she threw the scroll in what her senses told her was the accurate direction, "and—"

"Oh, I've been expecting this letter! Thank you, Avatar. You've passed the first challenge."

Silence.

"You wanted me to deliver the letter…to you?"

"Didn't I tell you that?"

"You told me to deliver it to the captain of the guard!"

"No, I said the _head_ of the guards. As the King, I have absolute authority over this city's guard, and so I am its head."

More silence.

"Anyway," Bumi said, clapping his hands, "we aren't gettin' any younger, especially me. Let's move on to the second challenge, shall we?"

_It would be so easy to kill him right now,_ Azula thought. _So easy._

She followed him anyway.

* * *

"This is your second challenge, Avatar."

"I'm—"

"Yes, blind, I know. Anyway, the letter you so kindly delivered to me—"

Azula grumbled under her breath.

"—contained some distressing news. Apparently, a spy has made his way into my palace!"

"Is that so," Azula deadpanned.

"Exactly so. I've sent my men after him, of course, but I want to reinforce my defenses at the front door. Would you mind going there for me?"

"So…the next challenge is just to go to the front door?"

"Oh, Tian no. That wouldn't be nearly challenging enough!"

_Of course not._

"I'm sending one of my best guards along, too. The second challenge is to beat him to the gate."

"So it's a race?"

"Exactly!" Bumi sounded inordinately pleased. "And it starts _now_!"

Azula immediately saw fast-moving footsteps quickly speed ahead of her. Shoving her curses inside for the time being, she took off after them.

She felt a huge hole being bent into the wall ahead of her and internally smacked herself for stupidity. _Of course; this entire palace is built out of rock._ The guard bent the hole closed, but Azula had taken to earthbending much quicker than both water and (especially) airbending, so it wasn't difficult to make a passageway herself and continue on.

She didn't close it. The King could do that himself.

And so the race was on. The disparity in ability, however, soon became apparent. The guard she was racing against clearly knew the palace's layout perfectly. If she wasn't following behind him, Azula would not have any idea where to go. Aside from that, he was far more proficient at earthbending than she, and of course, eyesight gave him much better information about his surroundings than Azula's still-shaky seismic sense.

_Agni curse you, Bumi_, Azula thought angrily. _First you send me on a wild mouse-goose chase, now this? If I were to make a list of people whose very existence makes me doubt the Divine Right to rule, then…_

As Azula continued her rants, however, she slowly came to realize that the race was taking her to somewhat familiar territory. Indeed, unless she was mistaken—and she wasn't—they were right next to the path she and the others had taken to meet with Bumi when they first arrived. So that was one obstacle cleared.

Of course, the guard was still clearly in the lead, and as long as he was ahead of her—

Azula mentally slapped herself. _Duh._ Whipping some water out of the pouch she carried with her, she flung it at the guard while turning it to ice, making use of a technique Naya had taught her recently.

With the guard frozen to the wall, it was child's play to win the race.

* * *

It was two down and one to go, but Azula wasn't exactly thinking positive thoughts as Bumi led her to the next area. _Given how the previous two 'challenges' went, this one will probably involve Bumi telling me to garden or—_

"Your final test is a duel."

…_Okay, _that_ was unexpected. _"Really?" she asked, with not a small amount of excitement.

"Indeed. And, as a special treat, you may choose your opponent."

_Oh, this can't be happening, _Azula thought giddily_. I _can't_ be this lucky._

"Point and—"

Azula immediately pointed at Bumi. "You."

She heard a raspy laugh. "Gutsy move, Avatar. And the wrong one."

Suddenly, the ground underneath Azula exploded, sending her flying backward. She quickly bent fire downward, allowing her to land gracefully. This was followed by a large—and loud—vibration as the King jumped down in front of her.

"You thought I was a frail old man—"

"Actually, I already knew you were an earthbender," Azula said, grinning.

That seemed to throw Bumi off for a bit, but he quickly recovered. "Be that as it may, I am the most powerful earthbender you'll ever see."

Azula's grin grew even wider. "Oh, this is getting better and better."

"Is it now?"

Some part of Azula's brain told her to stop talking, that she still wanted to have this mad King on her side, but for the first time in a long time, her mouth moved faster than her brain. "I've been wanting to beat you up since I met you, and now you're saying I'll get a good fight in the bargain, too? This is better than I _dreamed_."

Bumi, however, just laughed. Maybe he was too far gone to know how to be properly offended. "Not a bad attitude to have, Avatar. Let's see how it holds up."

Azula saw Bumi kick, and a chunk of rock was taken out of the ground in front of him. Judging the angle quickly, she bent the rock out of the way before it hit her, and retaliated with a series of firebending katas, sending pent-up rage and frustration with each one.

"Typical firebender tactic, pressuring your opponent with constant attacks," Bumi said patronizingly. "I had hoped the Avatar would be less _predictable_."

Bumi stomped his foot, and the ground beneath Azula thrust upward, catapulting her into the air.

"You see through vibrations in the ground, right, Avatar?" Bumi crowed. "Which means the sky is your weakness."

Azula cursed under her breath. In the air, she had no idea where the next attack was coming from. She rocketed diagonally down and away from Bumi with firebending, then made herself a cushion of air well in advance of her landing.

Unfortunately, she was met with a lump of rock that jutted out _precisely_ from where she intended to land, which sent her into the air again along with a nice helping of pain.

"You're gonna have to be more creative than that!" Bumi yelled.

Azula gritted her teeth. She might not have eyes in the air, but she still had ears. This time, she rocketed upward, and pricked her ears for the sound of a hunk of rock being taken out of the ceiling.

_There it is_. She sent a blast of wind to slow the rock down, then suddenly got a crazy idea about what to do with it. Sending herself higher and the rock lower with the wind, she moved it below her and fused the rock to her lower legs with earthbending. Then she sped at an insanely fast speed toward the last place she had seen Bumi be. This way, the rock would act as a shield from any potential attacks from below.

Flying at high speeds toward her opponent, preparing for an attack while still strategizing out future possibilities and how to respond to each…Azula had almost forgotten how much she enjoyed fighting.

That aside, the downside to her present tactic was that the wind blowing around her prevented her from hearing anything, so she had literally no idea what was happening until she finally crashed into the ground, using all her abilities to recover from that as fast as she could.

Luckily, now that she was on the ground again, she could see Bumi, and when she felt one of his feet lifting up, she immediately sped toward him, aided by airbending, and drew the water out of her pouch, bending it into an ice sword—Naya's favorite technique, and the first advanced one Azula had learned.

"Not bad, Avatar," Bumi said, "but not good enough!"

His foot came down, and Azula gave him credit for waiting to do that until he was sure of hitting her, but Azula had expected it. Moving her hand upward, she bent the ground below her herself, and in such a way as to send her flying straight at Bumi, ice sword extended.

If something interesting had not happened at that moment, Azula would have lost the duel then and there.

Maybe it was because Azula was so intensely focused on one single task—_get Bumi_—that all her being was solely devoted to it. Or maybe the psychological shift she went through to be able to see with earthbending had already let her do this, too, and she had just never noticed it before. For whatever reason, as Azula was preparing to force Bumi's surrender, she felt an almost insignificant amount of air pressure on her skin, and it told her that something was in front of her that shouldn't be.

Instinctively, Azula punched ahead, preparing to meet earth and bend it apart, and felt her fist impact a stone slab that she was a millisecond away from colliding into.

As it was, she still collapsed into a near-heap, her left hand bleeding from the work she had just made it do. Now in contact with the ground again, she saw that she was right in front of Bumi.

Before letting him do anything else, she immediately sent a large blast of fire forward, then spun around, spreading the inferno in all directions, forcing Bumi to escape and give her some breathing room.

"An impressive show, Avatar," she heard Bumi say from beyond the raging fires. "But I imagine you must be quite tired from it. If so, how do you intend to counter _this_?"

As Azula went through every meditation exercise she knew in order to make her exhaustion flow out of her, she saw a huge number of cracks forming around the platform she and Bumi had been standing on before the duel. As the inferno around her died down and she recovered enough to get normal thought and bodily processes back, she saw the entire platform and the earth around it rising from the ground. A huge mound of rock, big enough to crush an entire platoon, was now flying toward her.

Firebending alone wouldn't be able to stop it. Airbending or earthbending might, but she wasn't nearly as proficient at those as she had to be. So how…?

"_You're gonna have to be more creative than that," Bumi yelled._

…_Indeed._

Azula sat down in a perfect lotus stance, breathed in, breathed out, and meditated.

As she did, the wind pressure sensations from before came back to her. The huge block of rock was displacing so much air that, when she tried, it was easy to pinpoint its location. She still couldn't stop the entire thing, of course.

But who said she _needed_ to?

As the mountain barreled down at her, Azula just sat, carefully moderating her breathing. 10 _shaku_ away…5…3…1…

At the last moment, Azula thrust her hands up, and couldn't suppress a smile.

The mountain of rock crashed to the ground. A millisecond later, a perfectly cylindrical slab of rock erupted from it, flying straight into the air, leaving a gap just large enough for a fourteen-year-old Avatar to sit in. Azula, totally protected by the mass of earth around her, was able to freely send it straight at the location her seismic sense told her Bumi was.

Before it even reached him, however, Azula breathed in, breathed out, and thrust another cylinder out of the rock, this time straight forward. Then three more, this time with a burst of fire behind each.

These seemed to convince Bumi that he needed to do something, and Azula sensed cracks forming in the rock around her. Most likely, he was preparing to split his mountain apart to discern her location. Azula made her preparations, and steeled herself.

When the rock moved enough to give Bumi line-of-sight toward her, it also gave Azula a free line to him—and since she already knew his location, she got first move. She struck her own back with a strongly-bended lump of rock to launch herself into the air, used fire and wind to increase her speed, and when she tackled him to the ground, used frozen water to dig into his flesh.

"_I win_," Azula rasped, holding an ice knife at his chest, elation flooding her body.

But no sooner did she say that did she feel powerful hands clasp around her throat.

The two of them stayed in that deadly embrace for several seconds. But eventually, finally, she heard the mad King's rasping laugh.

"Well done, Avatar. You fight with fire in your belly and ice in your blood."

* * *

"So you were intending to lend me your aid no matter what?" Azula asked dubiously.

Bumi laughed. "Of course. Did you think I defended this city for eighty years by making fun of people?"

"Yes," Sokka muttered next to her.

As it turned out, Azula's companions had never been in jail—Bumi had earthbent them through the floor, then his attendants had given them a full tour and (another) feast. They had even watched her fight, though Azula hadn't noticed them during it.

The others swore they didn't interfere because they had promised not to, but Azula knew they had fully enjoyed watching her get played for a fool by the King.

"So why put me through all those…challenges?"

"Well, first of all, it's fun messing with people."

"True," Toph said, sounding impressed. Azula punched her, willing to suffer the inevitable revenge strike.

"Second," Bumi continued, "you actually helped me out a lot by doing the first challenge, Avatar."

"…Really?"

"I wasn't lying about there being a spy in my palace."

Now _that_ threw Azula for a loop. "Huh?"

"A man named Long Feng is the current Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, but more importantly, he's the leader of the Dai Li. He's been periodically spying on me, but this time, he might have been able to find a scroll I really don't want him to have."

It wasn't hard for Azula to put two and two together. "From the first challenge."

Bumi clapped his hands. "Precisely! I have my hiding places, of course, but the Dai Li knows most of them. I usually keep stuff on my person in these situations. But when you arrived, I realized that, if I left the scroll with you and wore tight-fitting clothing where a scroll couldn't fit, I could fool him into thinking I didn't even have it."

Azula could sense her companions were quite confused by this turn of events—not that she wasn't, of course. "So what's in the scroll?" she managed to stumble out.

"Tell you what, Avatar. I'll give it to you when I die; it'll make sense then."

Even now, Azula wasn't quite sure whether, and to what extent, Bumi was insane. Either way, though, she could tell when someone had effectively declared a line of questioning closed. "So what about the other two challenges?"

"Ah, yes. I wasn't kidding when I said your tactics were typical firebender, Avatar—constant attacks to keep up the pressure. That's your natural style of combat, as well as of negotiation. Am I correct in assuming that most of your strategic and tactical plots also revolve around overpowering your opponent into submission?"

"Well…to a certain extent, I suppose," Azula said slowly. "But what other effective plots are there?"

"It depends." Bumi laughed. "Sometimes you have to look past appearances into the reality, like in the first challenge. Sometimes you have to fundamentally rethink the goal you're trying to achieve, like in the second challenge. And sometimes, as you saw in our duel, preciseness and seizing the initiative can overcome pure power. Power isn't always the answer, Avatar."

Azula wasn't fully buying what he was saying, but some small part of her recognized elements of it were similar to what Naya and Aang sometimes said when she didn't waterbend or airbend properly. "I'll think about it."

"And before you think you don't have to work on anything because you beat me, do understand that I was very much holding back during our duel."

"Called it!" Toph shouted as the others, even Naya, snickered. Resolving to take off her eye-covering cloth and give them each a nice eyeball-less glare later, Azula merely said, "In order to test me, right?"

"As you say. We can have a real fight if you beat the Firelord."

Clamping down on her wounded pride, Azula nodded.

"In any event," Bumi breezed on, "I assume you are heading to Ba Sing Se from here?"

"That is correct."

"If you can set up a meeting with the Council of Five and the Water Tribes, I'll show up. Just tell me the time and place. And watch yourself around Long Feng."

Azula nodded again. "I guess we'll be going then."

But just as Azula and the others were about to leave, Bumi spoke up again.

"Oh, by the way, Avatar, let me tell you one last thing."

I've been meaning to ask you something for a while."

Out of politeness, Azula turned around. "What is it?"

"Why do you smell like cabbages?"

* * *

**End of Chapter 5**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **This took way longer to write than it should have. A few things IRL happened, but mostly, writing Bumi totally kicked my ass. I apologize profusely for the delay.

A _shaku_ is an ancient Japanese unit of measurement which Wikipedia tells me is approximately equivalent to one foot.

As a reminder, "Tian" was essentially the chief god of Imperial China.

By now, the pattern of this story should have become apparent. Each of the three story arcs will get eight chapters, and they will alternate (story arc A, then B, then C, then A again, etc.). The first and last chapters I don't consider belonging to any particular arc. Hopefully this isn't too confusing.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	6. Terrorists and Freedom Fighters

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 5.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Terrorists and Freedom Fighters**

* * *

There were a colossal amount of issues to work through after the War, Ozai's death, and Zuko's ascendance to the throne. The Peace and Reconciliation Summit addressed approximately none of them. The ambassadors practically came to blows about whether the Water Tribes or the Earth Kingdom _suffered more_, so discussions about things like territorial boundaries, reparations, and the Fire Nation colonies were studiously put aside and marked "work out later." However, one issue mandated that it be resolved quickly: the return of Sozin's Comet.

Needless to say, not everyone was happy when Azula killed Ozai and Zuko took the throne. But the War had tired everyone out enough that the opposition, at first, didn't rise much above a few drunken military officers and noblemen complaining about the Fire Nation's humiliation and forsaken honor.

Then came the Peace and Reconciliation Summit, which despite good intentions ended up being perceived by many in the Fire Nation as Zuko apologizing and supplicating to the rest of the world. That was the catalyst for a full-fledged Imperialist movement.

It was still quite small, confined to a radical fringe, relatively obscure, and most importantly fully infiltrated by an agent—Zhao. But they would almost certainly use Sozin's Comet to try _something_, so Azula and Zuko, aided by Iroh and Mai, had spent most of the intervening months preparing for that. The movement wasn't yet centralized enough for Zhao to know what most of them would be doing, so they'd have to prepare for most any contingency.

The issue, of course, was that the Fire Nation was big and the army couldn't be _everywhere_, even if Azula trusted all of them (and she didn't). So the best she could do was assign units to all the major towns and cities, and tell the citizens to send a distress signal _immediately_ should something happen.

* * *

After the War ended, On Ji and everyone else were sent home for an unspecified amount of time. Her friends told her that the new Firelord was making some serious changes to the curriculum, which was why it was taking so long to start up the schools again. While On Ji didn't have any strong opinions about that, or about the War in general, she was still grateful for the time off. The Fire Nation was going through such big upheavals that she wasn't sure she could handle being away from her family.

At least there was the Sozin's Comet Festival to look forward to. Er, she supposed she should call it "the Comet Festival"; the new government was trying to get everyone to call it just "the Comet" instead, but old habits were hard to break. Anyway, the _Comet_ Festival was only held once every century, so everyone was busy for months in preparation. Besides, while nobody said it explicitly, On Ji could tell that forgetting the humiliation of defeat was another major reason people were putting so much effort into the celebrations. But, as long as it ended up fun, what did it matter?

The day of the festival, On Ji's mother helped her put on super-traditional Fire Nation garb. It was the first time she had worn it in years. She heard that other, bigger villages were having three-day festivals—and in the biggest cities, they went on for a whole week—but On Ji's village was small enough that even a full-day festival was a little much. Without any good friends, either, she spent most of her time idling around engaging in small talk. But the decorations were pretty.

As the day slowly dissolved into night, everyone gradually gathered to the town square for the firebending display. The village was small enough that only one firebender was available, but the Comet gave him enough power that even alone his displays were extremely impressive. The crowd cheered and clapped as he formed a fiery dragon and badgermole, then engaged them in battle. After the dragon bit the badgermole in half they both dissolved into flame, then formed the Imperial Seal to wild applause.

On Ji clapped too, but she suddenly got the strong feeling that something seemed _off_ about the Seal. Deciding it was just her imagination, she pushed her doubts aside…

Then it happened.

Suddenly, a ring of fire erupted around the town square, trapping the entire village inside it. As screams of confusion and panic spread amongst the crowd, On Ji heard the bellowing of a strong voice.

"Do not fear, good citizens! We only wish to open your eyes to the injustice you have suffered!"

On Ji, along with everyone else, looked to the platform. The firebender was standing aside and bowing as a powerful, well-built man, wearing the finest Fire Nation armor, hair tied in an immaculate top knot, and beard trimmed perfectly straight, stared down at them. Three others whom On Ji had never seen before flanked him

"My name is Ichiro Tokugawa," the man said. "I am a General in the Fire Nation's army; or, I used to be. With a heavy heart, I find that I am forced to resign my post in light of the recent humiliations the current Firelord has inflicted upon our once-great nation."

The crowd, On Ji included, was quite restless, but a few blasts of fire into the air quelled them.

"Never before has something like this happened in our history," the man continued, pacing back and forth and becoming increasingly agitated. "Under the cover of a solar eclipse, our enemies snuck into our capital and murdered Firelord Ozai, the rightful heir to the Sun Spirit Amaterasu. They then installed former Prince Zuko, traitor to the Fire Nation, onto the throne. While I and other patriotic Fire Nation soldiers blanched at this blatant injustice, we still had our honor, and knew it was our duty to serve the current Firelord, even if he was responsible for the assassination of the previous one."

General Ichiro suddenly stopped pacing and stuck his arms out wide. "However! During the entirety of his brief reign, Firelord Zuko has proven over and over that he is nothing but a puppet of our former enemies! Know this, good citizens of the Fire Nation: the current Firelord cares naught for our country, our honor, or our pride. All he cares about is pleasing the masters who are responsible for his current position—the Earth King, the Water Tribe savages, and above all, the ultimate traitor to our great nation, the Avatar!

"Firelord Zuko may share in Amaterasu's blood, but he clearly does not share in Her ideals. He may have been the firstborn son of the great Firelord Ozai, but he clearly did not inherit the Divine Right to Rule! It pains me to say this, fellow citizens, but as true patriots who understand the greatness of the Fire Nation, it is up to us to take our government back from the usurpers who have stolen it from us!

"Therefore!" Reaching a crescendo, General Ichiro walked to the center of the stage, and his followers started launching fireballs into the sky with each new sentence he spoke. "I hereby announce the formation of the Sons of the Phoenix! Our holy mission is to expel the foreigners intent on driving us to destruction, and return our government to where it belongs—the Fire Nation people themselves! Our goal is to give full governmental authority to the ones best able and most willing to lead our country to the glorious future which is its destiny!"

With a shout, all five of them thrust their hands up, and formed a giant phoenix from fire that erupted out of their fists.

"You will hear more from us soon, but for now, I bid you all farewell!"

With a salute and one final shout, the figures filled the entire town square with thick smoke. By the time it cleared, they were gone.

* * *

"And just how did you let this happen?" Azula asked silkily.

Zhao cleared his throat. "As I told you before, Avatar, the Imperialist movement isn't—"

"Organized yet, I know," Azula cut him off. "But Ichiro isn't some country bumpkin with delusions of grandeur. He's a former General. Why didn't you know about him?"

"I apologize, but—"

"I'm not asking for _apologies_, Zhao. I'm asking for _explanations_."

"I have none."

Azula sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Okay, look. Of all the people who tried to start something yesterday, Ichiro is by far the most influential. Zuko doesn't want to kill him because we don't have strong evidence he's planning actual violence." Azula paused and took a breath so she didn't voice her personal opinion on that matter. "So I want you to bring the group _you _lead to Ichiro and put it under his control."

"But, Avatar, I don't think we should give him that kind of power."

Azula moved her nose up and down. "He'll never be powerful enough to take us head-on. He'll _always_ be powerful enough to potentially assassinate Zuko. The benefits of having a mole in his organization far outweigh the little power he'll get."

A short pause, then Zhao said, "Understood. You are indeed correct, sir."

Azula sighed again. She had put the fear of Agni into him, so he put on a good pose of submission, but he still believed he was smarter than her. The Imperialists wouldn't trust any of her more reliable servants, though, so she just had to deal with it. "Anyway, put you and your group under his control, and do your best to get proof that he's planning on actually killing people. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

Azula leaned back in her chair, absently cleaning her nails with a small file.

"Am I dismissed, Avatar?"

"Actually, I have one more question for you, Zhao," Azula said lightly.

"What is it?"

"What's your honest opinion on Ichiro's speech?"

A minute stretched on. Azula wasn't sure exactly why she asked that question, but she had some sort of intuition that the answer might be interesting.

Finally, Zhao said, "I understand where he's coming from. I know the taste of defeat and humiliation very well. And I won't deny I privately disagree with many things Firelord Zuko has done. However, he, not Ichiro, has Amaterasu's blood and the Divine Right to Rule. Ichiro's duty is to follow him, not question him, and certainly not to oppose him."

Azula leaned back, took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "The Divine Right to Rule, huh?"

"Avatar?"

"It's nothing. Make sure to send monthly reports to Zuko. If you don't, I'll hear about it."

"Yes, sir!"

Footsteps and the slam of a door indicated Zhao had left.

Azula remained for a while, troubled by a nagging thought she couldn't name.

* * *

Ten years passed. While there were many troubling signs, nothing particularly destabilizing had occurred, as long as you ignored one certain major exception. Aside from _that_, though (_I _really_ hate the Spirit World,_ Azula briefly allowed herself to ruminate), all Azula really had to worry about were Jet and Ichiro. And with the colonies' new anti-terrorist defense plans protecting them against Jet, and the Fire Nation's Sedition laws isolating Ichiro, it appeared that Azula didn't have very much to worry about in the short-term.

"So, how'd the meeting with Long Feng and the peasants go?" Toph asked.

Of course, appearances can be deceiving. The world never seemed to tire of inventing new problems for Azula to solve.

"I've never been more tempted to kill Long Feng in my life," Azula grumbled.

Zenmetsu made an impatient groan. She probably wanted to get back into the air.

Toph pretended to be surprised. "No one could have guessed he'd refuse to pardon their taxes, huh?"

"You'd think he had dragons to feed, he wants rice so much."

"Ehh, that's just what people do. When you have power, all you want is more power."

"Yes, well. Even if we ignore him letting thousands of peasants starve, some provinces are already grumbling about seceding, and Long Feng is quickly running out of allies. If he doesn't get his act together soon—"

"Hey, Azula," Toph interrupted.

"_What_?" Azula was always annoyed when she got cut off mid-rant.

"You smell that?"

Toph's genuinely worried tone convinced Azula to actually focus on her sense of smell. It wasn't hard to make it out.

"Smoke."

After a quick apology to Zenmetsu and an even quicker dash, Azula and Toph found out the details. Good news: The fire was limited to one building. Bad news: It was a tax collectors' office. Worst news: Scrolls near the building identified one 'Oppressed Peasants United Against Tyranny' as the perpetrators.

"At least they chose a descriptive name," Toph observed.

Azula snorted. _The Fire Nation military's getting more and more pissed at Zuko, the Southern Water Tribes are a tinderbox waiting to explode at each other, and now the Earth Kingdom is falling apart at the seams. _Azula had never appreciated Arnook and Yue more.

* * *

Azula rarely had personal meetings with Zhao anymore; she didn't want to make Ichiro and the other Imperialists overly suspicious. But with both the Earth Kingdom and the Southern Water Tribes' internal problems getting worse, she wasn't willing to let the Sons of the Phoenix run around anymore. If nothing else, nobody would accept her as the Avatar if she wasn't perceived as being _competent_. So she finally decided to implement the high-risk, high-reward plan she had been working on with Toph for over a year.

The first step of that plan was convincing Zhao of it.

"You want me to…_frame_ Ichiro?"

"That is the gist of what I said, but thank you for summarizing it for me."

"I'm just confused, is all," Zhao said, barreling through Azula's sarcasm. "What is this supposed to accomplish?"

"There will always be Imperialists," Azula said, tapping her fingers upon her thigh restlessly. "But there won't always be leaders as charismatic and intelligent as Ichiro. We need to draw him out into the open, while at the same time encouraging him to commit an inexcusable crime. This is the most efficient way to do both."

"Well, framing him for being a spy for you would certainly make him lose the trust of the others."

"And considering his personality, he'd want to do something big and dramatic to win their trust back," Azula said meaningfully.

By his gasp, she could tell Zhao was finally grasping her plan. "You aren't saying—"

"I _did_ say this was high-risk, high-reward, Zhao. This plan is nowhere near ideal, and there's only so much I can do to control the outcome. However, you can't clean up the residue of a century-long war with sunshine and flowers. _Someone_ needs to stop the world from slowly disintegrating and I don't see anyone else volunteering. Understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Zhao said, and the excitement in his voice served as some slight confirmation that Azula had made the right choice in recruiting him.

* * *

Jet mass-murdered Fire Nation civilians, and Ichiro wanted to overthrow the entire Fire Nation government—Azula felt no compunction in killing them and wiping out their terrorist networks. The Oppressed Peasants Blah Blah, on the other hand, only arose in the first place because Long Feng was bleeding his subjects dry. Azula wasn't going to massacre starving peasants for the Grand Secretariat, so she decided to let the issue fester in order to force Long Feng's hand. Azula paid for her spite with a steadily increasing series of terrorist acts by the peasant group, which ended up encouraging Long Feng to just dig in and refuse to compromise. While this did accelerate the growth of the seeds she had planted in the Dai Li, it also threatened to erupt into a full-fledged riot. So Azula finally got over herself and declared publicly that she'd meet alone with the Oppressed Etcetera's leaders to negotiate a settlement. That angered Long Feng, of course, but who cares.

That then led to the next issue: the peasants' group didn't really _have_ leaders, presumably because the universe enjoyed seeing Azula suffer. So she got to meet underground (for secrecy) with over a hundred angry, dirty, foul-smelling, illiterate dregs of society.

"The Grand Secretariat has stolen the throne from its rightful King! He must step down and let Earth King Kuei take his rightful place!"

The elongated series of terrorist actions/retaliations/retrenchments had hardly helped moderate them, of course.

"No—the only proper fate for that bastard Long Feng is the Stocks!" The Stocks being Ba Sing Se's particular brand of brutal execution; earthbend someone's feet to a ceiling, meld a huge slab of rock to their hands, and let them hang like that until they die from starvation, too much blood going to their head, or just by getting torn apart.

"We're in this position because we let idiots claim to be rulers just because their father was! If we don't kill them all and rule ourselves, this'll just happen all over again!"

"Look at me, Avatar—I'm nothing but bones. I'll die if Long Feng takes away even one more grain of rice…"

"All we want is to feed our children! Is that too much to ask!"

It basically went like that for five hours. Needless to say, the peasants didn't manage to cobble together a list of requests, much less let any sort of actual negotiation move forward.

It's not that she couldn't understand where they were coming from. If someone was taking all _her_ food away, she'd be pissed too. But just what did they hope to accomplish when their only 'organization' was a disunited mess? If Long Feng were a reasonable person, it might've been a different story, but…

Toph must have noticed Azula's bad mood, because she spoke with a rare, albeit barely-detectable, trepidation.

"I have some news."

Azula sighed. _What is it this time? Long Feng declared war on the North? _"What is it?"

"Jet has announced he unconditionally supports the Oppressed Whatevers."

Azula smacked herself on the forehead.

"Oh, and he also advocated the removal and execution of, quote, 'the Fire Nation toady that dares to call himself the Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se.'"

Azula had to laugh at that one. If there was one thing Long Feng _wasn't_…

Suddenly, she felt something like a flash of inspiration.

"Azula?" Toph asked, with slightly more trepidation.

"I have an idea."

* * *

"So, I hear your sister's come up with some new plan to wipe out the Imperialists."

Zuko flinched involuntary. It was never fun to discuss Azula with Mai. To her credit, she knew this, so his wife never brought the subject up unless it was critically important. Plus it was usually in the afterglow of their…_nightly play_, making it less likely to result in a shouting match.

"Yeah. Zhao's supposed to plant evidence framing Ichiro for being a spy."

"Wouldn't that put Zhao under suspicion, too?" Mai asked lazily.

"Apparently, he's not going to discover the evidence or take sides in the ensuing argument."

"Ah."

Zuko cleared his throat. "The plan definitely has its risks, but it should be able to force Ichiro out into the open."

Mai grunted. They cuddled each other in silence for a while after that, enjoying the time they shared without nobles, soldiers, or their own children—as much as they loved the latter. However, Mai seemed to be thinking of something else the entire time. Just as he was about to ask if something was wrong, Mai said, "I still think you should just let me stick a knife in his back."

Zuko let out a brittle laugh. "Even if Zhao could tell us where he'd be ahead of time—"

"Yes, I know, it might backfire and give the Imperialists even more support." Mai sighed long and deep. "Plus, you'd feel bad. Idiot."

"You know me too well," Zuko murmured, then was dismayed when Mai wriggled out of the bed. "Where are you going?"

"I'm still wide awake. I think I'll go practice my knife throwing."

"You sure?"

Mai grunted in a way that served to say 'Yes,' with a small helping of 'You idiot.' Zuko smiled in spite of himself.

"I love you," he said.

This time, Mai's grunt had more than a small helping of 'You idiot.'

After she left, Zuko sighed deeply and sprawled out on his bed. It had been more than a decade, but he still wasn't used to being Firelord. He knew he was too easily influenced by others; Azula, at least, felt the need to point that out to him every time they met. But it wasn't a tendency he could just will away. And anyway, he was never very good at politics. He'd much rather spend all his time with his children and—

An explosion rocked the room.

_What!_

His reflexes were badly atrophied from disuse, but he did manage to dash off his bed quickly. That saved him from getting an arrow through the chest, at least, but he couldn't think of what to do _next_. If he stopped crouching by the bed, the assassins would have a clear shot to him.

As he desperately tried to clamp down on his growing panic and think of a plan, he felt heat behind him, and a glance confirmed that the assassins had set his bed on fire.

_That's not good_.

Zuko was about to make a mad dash to the door when two arrows crashed onto the marble floor in front of him, disabusing him of that notion.

It took all he had to not give himself up entirely to despair. The most danger he had ever been in his whole life was during the Day of Black Sun all those years ago, and even then, he at least had had an army backing him up. Now, he had no one.

Which is why it would be impossible to describe in words the sense of relief he felt when he saw Mai's figure in the doorway, why he barely paused for reflection before following her gestured request to 'Come here,' and why it only registered dimly that his wife blocked all the arrows shot at him with her knives.

"How'd—"

"No time. We're going outside _now_."

"Outside?"

No sooner did he ask that stupid question that Mai grabbed his hand and jumped out of the nearest glass window with a _crash_, giving Zuko the task to desperately use his firebending to give them something like a soft landing from their seven-story jump.

"What was that for!" shouted a panting and bleeding Zuko when he finally managed to catch his breath.

No sooner had he asked that when a giant wall of earth rose in front of him and Mai, blocking a lance of fire just in time.

"That," said a voice Zuko hadn't heard in years.

Zuko turned around, and sure enough, there was Toph, looking even more like she had been carved out of a mountain. "Stop gaping," she said, "and find someplace to hide. We'll take it from here."

"What do you mean—"

This time, Zuko was interrupted by a massive gust of wind, and looking around wildly, he saw something _else_ he hadn't seen in years.

His sister, with blinding white light shining out of her eye sockets.

He needed little more motivation to flee.

* * *

Azula and Mai didn't get along anymore—or maybe they never really did. Despite that, they both still agreed on the need to not have unproductive conflicts between those on the same side. And Mai, personally, was not exactly the type to show much, or any, emotion.

Which is not to say Azula was particularly surprised at the anger and disgust in her former friend's voice when they talked after the night's exciting encounter.

"You manipulated Ichiro into trying to assassinate Zuko!" she shouted, right there on the open ground, in front of both people in question (though at least Ichiro was unconscious).

There were many reasonable ways to proceed. Both Azula and Mai were high-strung and exhausted from the night's events, true, but Azula probably could've put in the effort to defuse the situation if she really tried. But after leaving the Avatar State, trying to think of appropriate responses was harder than running through a fetid swamp. "We both know it was high time we drew Ichiro out into the open," Azula said.

"And so your brilliant idea was to maneuver him into trying to kill the Firelord, is that it?"

"That's it precisely."

"And you didn't feel the need to tell either me or Zuko this _why_?"

This was going to be the topic the conversation turned on. Somewhere within her, Azula heard a voice: _You can reduce the damage if you really want to…_ But when she spoke, it was her annoyance and anger at Mai she had nurtured for over ten years talking. "Come now, Mai, you should be able to figure that out by yourself," she said, voice dripping with contempt.

"You knew I would never allow it if I had known," Mai said, disgust getting dislodged by hatred. "By doing it this way, though, you left me with little choice but to go along with your plan."

"See?"

"And if I hadn't figured it out by myself in time? If Zuko hadn't reacted in time?"

The excitement and battle mentality were starting to wear off, enabling Azula to finally think of some adequate responses:

'_I know your skills very well. I was positive you could detect assassins lying in wait, and that you could get him out in time for me to take over.'_

Or,

'_Zuzu might be an idiot, but he did train hours a day for years. Ichiro was never trained in operations that required stealth; he wasn't going to get killed that easily.'_

Or,

'_I know it was very dangerous, and I do apologize for that. However, Ichiro was going to try to assassinate Zuko sooner or later. By doing it this way, we not only force him to try when he's still not very powerful, but we also get to catch him in the act personally.'_

And yet…and yet…

"Every plan has risks," Azula said at last.

She soon felt the cold steel of a knife being pressed into her throat.

"'Victory can never be achieved without sacrifice,'" Mai whispered, and Azula recognized it as something she had told the other woman herself in what now seemed like a different lifetime. "And yet, somehow, in your plans, it's always others who have to sacrifice. Must be nice, being the Avatar. Or the Princess."

Slowly, methodically, Azula untied the cloth wrapped around her eyes and took it away, letting Mai get a nice look at her empty sockets.

Nobody said anything for a long time after that.

* * *

"Ichiro Tokugawa. You have been found guilty of attempting to murder Firelord Zuko, heir to Sun Spirit Amaterasu, and sentenced to death by beheading. In deference to your former position, the Firelord is willing to commute your sentence to a life term in the Boiling Rock, as long as you repent your heinous actions and admit, in public, that Firelord Zuko is the rightful ruler of the Fire Nation."

Former General Ichiro Tokugawa laughed. "I may have lost everything else, but I still have my pride. You call _my_ actions heinous? I am not the one who betrayed my country, invaded my capital, helped kill my father, usurped my throne. Descended from the Sun Spirit or not, someone like that deserves the loyalty of no one. If the Firelord is not willing to act in the best interests of his people, it is the duty of those who _are_ to oppose him, in whatever way possible. All I repent is my failure."

"Very well."

The executioner's sword was unsheathed. Ichiro's head fell to the ground with a _thunk_.

* * *

For the first time in a _very _long time, things were looking up for Jet.

Ever since he had flooded that Fire Nation village—which caused Pipsqueak and The Duke to leave, since they apparently didn't have what it took to be a Freedom Fighter—nothing he did seemed to work the way he wanted it to. He had thought the Fire Nation was after him before, but after that incident, they sent far bigger forces than he had ever seen. His superior intelligence and knowledge of the land let him survive, but…

"_What are you doing, Sneers?"_

_Sneers looked back, with an unreadable expression on his face. "This is different from the other times, Jet. You know that. If someone doesn't stop them here, they'll kill us all."_

"_What are you talking about!" Smellerbee yelled. "You can't know that!"_

"_She's right," Jet said. "There's got to be another way!"_

"_Like what?"_

"_Well—" Jet tried to think, but somehow it seemed like his mind was clogged with an emotion he couldn't name._

_The muscles in Sneers's face relaxed. "You're the smartest guy I've ever known, Jet. You knew I was just using you for revenge, but you accepted me anyway. So…" he looked down. "Thanks."_

_Without another word, Sneers turned around and ran towards the Fire Nation troops._

"_Sneers!" Smellerbee screamed. "Wai—"_

"_Come on," Jet said roughly. "We're going."_

_Smellerbee looked at him in astonishment. "You're not—"_

"_We have no choice."_

_That day, Jet vowed to himself that he would never cry again._

Jet shook his head until his neck hurt. What use was it remembering something like that now? Now, when he was about to finally advance his goals? He had never been so close since—

"_I…I'm sorry."_

_An inhuman howl echoed in the distance, accompanied by a chorus of destruction._

_Smellerbee, her lower half crushed by the remains of a house, smiled. "It's not your fault. None of us thought it would turn out like this."_

_Jet didn't say anything. He didn't even know what he was thinking._

"_I never told you why I joined the Freedom Fighters, did I?"_

_Jet shook his head numbly._

"_Everyone else had had their family killed or village destroyed by the Fire Nation. The War touched me, too, but…nothing as serious as everyone else. I just…I liked feeling like I was accomplishing something. And…I liked feeling like I belonged._

"_This is just another setback, Jet. We've had plenty of those. I'm sure it'll turn out okay…eventually…"_

Jet punched the ground hard enough to break his skin. Those kinds of memories were useless now. After so many years, there was finally a movement of Earth Kingdom citizens not under the control of that Avatar witch. They were going to kick out that traitor Long Feng and replace him with someone who would give the Fire Nation what they deserved. So why…

_Longshot was sick. No matter what they tried, he wouldn't get better. No legitimate doctor would be willing to treat him, and Jet had no money to pay the illegitimate ones._

_All he could do was watch. Again._

"_Jet," Longshot rasped through his coughs, speaking for the first and last time since Jet had known him. "Don't give up. Just don't give up."_

Jet screamed, then took several deep breaths to steady himself, ignoring the glances he got from the remaining Freedom Fighters. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to remind himself why he was fighting, he told himself. It would get him into the proper mindset before the big meeting.

Somewhat recovered, Jet quickened their marching pace.

The Oppressed Peasants Who Cares had set up their headquarters underground, and moved it every week—perks from having a few earthbenders in your group. After Jet presented the seal of their new leader, he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters were led inside, and then he was taken by himself to meet with Fong.

Before Fong had managed to grasp leadership of the peasants, their 'rebellion' was a total mess. But Fong had been a General in the Earth Kingdom Army, _plus_ his family was from Ba Sing Se's Lower Ring, so he had somehow managed to gain the support of most of the peasants. His assuming the role of leader did drive some of them away from the organization, but it was also what made Jet's negotiation today possible.

He went through his prepared speech over again in his mind. 'With your numbers plus my years of experience in guerilla fighting, we will be able to—'

When he entered the chamber, the earthen door slammed shut behind him.

And he wasn't alone with Fong.

The grass fell out of Jet's mouth as it widened in shock.

"What's the Avatar doing here!"

His shock only lasted for a brief moment, but it was enough. The Avatar stamped her foot, and the ground beneath Jet's feet wrapped up, surrounding his body and immobilizing it.

There was nothing he could do.

Again.

Jet's brain ground to a halt, and he looked at Fong desperately.

The man shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "Sorry, Jet. Actually, I only managed to get this position through the Avatar's help. When she told me about her plan…"

"Later today, Long Feng's food taster will put poison in his wine," the Avatar broke in. "I've been working to get the Dai Li's loyalty for years, but Long Feng's pathetic reactions to this rebellion finally convinced enough of them. Their new leader, like Fong here, will owe me for his position. So when the two of them negotiate a settlement…"

Jet could feel a flash of anger, and grasped onto it desperately to avoid diving into despair. "What kind of negotiation is that! It'll all just be play-acting, controlled by you!"

The Avatar shrugged, not at all apologetically. "The only way to ensure an agreement that benefits the greater good is to limit the negotiation to one person."

Jet screamed and wildly flailed inside his earthen prison, trying desperately to find some way to break it.

Somewhere, some part of him noticed the Avatar sighing. "Well, my gratitude for fulfilling your end of the bargain, Fong. The rest of his followers have been captured too, I assume?"

"That is correct, Avatar," Fong said. Jet cursed him for his barely-concealed deference.

"A public execution is likely unwise for this one. I'll execute the terrorist here."

"I'm _not_ a terrorist!" Jet screamed.

He didn't care about much anything anymore, Jet realized. He didn't even really care much that he was going to die. But he was _not_ going to let _anyone_, much less the Avatar, dishonor the memory of his friends.

"My comrades and I are _not_ terrorists," he said, his voice low, tears streaming down his cheeks. "It was _your_ nation that invaded our country, stole our land, killed our mothers and children. It was _you_ who let them keep what they had stolen and refused to make them _pay_ for all the suffering they inflicted upon us. If you condemn us for self-defense and retribution, then just what the hell do you _expect_ us to do?"

Wordlessly, the Avatar stuck her hand inside a pouch at her waist, and drew out a line of water that she bent into a blade of ice. "I see you haven't changed since the last time we met," she said. "To answer your questions: First, I don't _expect_ you to do anything. War is more valuable for you than peace. Just like the violent chaos of resistance is more valuable for these peasants than a peace that would bring certain death. The difference is, they'd be satisfied with just some food on their tables. The only peace you're willing to accept is the destruction of the Fire Nation."

Jet's tears tried up.

"And second," the Avatar continued, "Ozai was a terrorist, but so are you."

"Don't you _dare_ compare me to Ozai!" Jet screamed.

The Avatar actually chuckled at that. "Why not? I compare myself to him every day."

"I'm a Freedom Fighter!"

"Being a freedom fighter doesn't disqualify you from being a terrorist. On the contrary, it implies it."

Jet was about to speak again, though he didn't know what he was going to say, but the Avatar cut him off. "No more debate. Do you have any last words?"

Jet opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head.

"As you wish."

He kept his eyes open until the last second.

* * *

**End of Chapter 6**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Okay, so. This one also took a while. My sincerest apologies for the delay (again). I said the last chapter was tough because of Bumi; this one had some serious plotting and characterization issues. But I think I managed to work through them, and so while I won't _promise_ to update quicker in the future—by now, I've learned the futility of that—I can at least say I _hope_ to return to a once-every-two-weeks-or-so schedule from now on.

Fong was the General who tried to forcibly get Aang into the Avatar State, and On Ji was that girl Aang taught to dance, in case you didn't memorize every piece of minutiae about this show (I got their names from the Avatar Wiki, myself, a resource I highly recommend to any and all _Avatar_ fanfic writers). Ichiro's last name, "Tokugawa," is a reference I'll let you figure out for yourself.

I don't like trolling for reviews, so I don't say this often, but: while I highly appreciate all my reviews, I _especially_ highly appreciate reviews with constructive criticism. So a big thank you to everyone who leaves me a review, and a super-big thank you to everyone who's willing to tell me what I did wrong.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	7. Enlightenment, Part 1

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 6.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

**Timeline Note: **This chapter takes place approximately a year after Ozai's death.

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

Chapter 7

Enlightenment, Part 1

* * *

Azula and Pathik began their little adventure inside a cave.

"You have seven Chakras in your body, Avatar. Each has a purpose, and each is blocked by a specific emotion. However, I must warn you: Once you begin opening your Chakras, you cannot stop until all seven are cleared up."

For the past few minutes, Azula had tried to disguise her thoughts from whatever mind-reading technique Pathik was using, to no avail. She decided to try her best to just ignore the fact that he knew exactly what she was thinking…though she still involuntary swallowed from time to time. _Maybe trying to talk with him will help._ "What happens if I stop?"

"You will become unable to enter the Avatar State again."

"…I see." _Well, that's fun._

"Indeed. Are you ready?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."

"Very well. The first Chakra is the Earth Chakra, located at the base of the spine."

"Wait, these Chakras have _specific locations_?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Pathik seemed genuinely confused.

"Well, I mean…they're spiritual, right?"

"Not exactly. The Chakras channel spiritual energy, true, but they themselves are very much a physical phenomenon."

Azula opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"Any other questions?" Pathik sounded almost smug.

"No, sorry, go ahead."

"As I was saying. The Earth Chakra deals with survival, and is blocked by fear."

"Okay, sorry, I have another question."

"What is it?"

"What exactly does that _mean_?"

"I'm not sure I understand." Pathik's tone made it sound like she had just asked him what 'earth' was.

"Well, I mean—look. First of all, 'deals with' is really vague."

"Unfortunately, human language often lacks the capacity to talk accurately about important subjects."

_Oh, come on. _"That's true, but—"

"How about this. The _purpose_ of the Earth Chakra is survival."

"Okay, but if that's the case, isn't fear _integral_ to it? Isn't the entire _point_ of fear to help in our survival?"

Pathik sighed. "I can see this is going to take a long time. Why don't we start by discussing what it is that you fear?"

"But—"

"_Do as I say, Avatar_." For the first time, real steel entered Pathik's voice.

"…Fine." Azula breathed in, breathed out, and tried to think of what it was that she feared.

"Sorry, Avatar, but general worries about the state of the world don't count," Pathik said in a lecturing tone.

"Gah! I had almost forgotten you could read my mind, you know!"

"Hmm. I'm not sure how that's relevant."

Azula cursed under her breath and involuntary clenched her fist. "Look, Guru, I'm not actually scared of that much. I'm—"

"Intelligent, strong, and powerful?"

"Okay, you did that on purpose."

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, you seem to be afraid of me, at least."

_He's enjoying this, isn't he? _"If you insist on reading my mind, could you at least _tell_ me what it is I'm afraid of?"

"Hmm." Pathik sounded like he was honestly thinking about it. "Actually, I have a better idea. Sit still for a second."

Azula sensed Pathik standing up and inadvertently gulped. She hadn't thought of it before because of how ridiculous Pathik was acting, but she was basically putting herself at the mercy of a madman.

_Oh, come on, it's not as bad as all that. If he does anything really weird, I can always just beat him up. He doesn't even seem to be a bender, after all._ Still though, as Pathik approached her, she had to force herself to breathe slowly and fight off an impending sense of dread as he touched her forehead with his finger.

* * *

Azula groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She felt really weird. For some reason, she couldn't remember anything that had happened recently beyond a vague sense of dread.

"Wakey wakey, Princess," a voice she hadn't heard before said.

"Huh?" The world was slowly coming into focus, but she was having trouble comprehending the information she was receiving. There were dark walls, torches, something very cold at her back, and she was feeling some sort of dull ache…

"Although I suppose you're a 'former Princess,' now," the same voice said.

Something inside Azula clicked. She recognized where she was: this was the bunker underneath the Palace. And over there, those were prison cell bars.

She began to stand up. "Just what is—"

Azula stopped talking. She couldn't stand up. Confused, she looked down.

At first, she didn't understand what she saw. As soon as she did, though, the dull ache suddenly turned into an intense, screeching pain.

Azula screamed. Since her arms and legs were completely broken, she couldn't move them, so she thrashed her torso around instead.

The man she hadn't seen before just laughed.

It didn't take long for Azula to tire out. When she stopped thrashing, the pain started coming back, so she frantically searched for another way to lessen it. Locking her vision onto the man in front of her, she decided to drown out her pain with a searing fury at her captor. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care. As soon as my father finds out what you've—"

"It seems you still don't understand your position, former Princess." The man walked toward her, slowly, and when he got close, he leaned down, locking eyes with Azula. "My name is Haka, the warden of the Dragon's Pit. I have been ordered to keep you locked up in here for the rest of your life." He smiled widely. "By your father."

Azula laughed. "Nice try. Why would Father—"

For some reason she couldn't name, Azula's mind tripped when she tried to complete that sentence. Before she could recover, Haka spoke up again. "What, you don't remember?" He laughed long and deep, then stopped suddenly before looking down at her in amusement. "You're the Avatar. That's reason enough."

Azula snorted. "That's..."

And then she remembered.

She was too tired to scream again. So her body just went limp as her mind went blank.

Haka shrugged. "So you finally remember now, huh?"

"My father…"

Haka smiled again. It wasn't an amused smile, like last time. It was the type of smile Azula tended to make: malicious and sadistic. "So here's the thing, Avatar. The Firelord wants to keep you alive, but he said I could have a souvenir."

Azula's entire world was collapsing. Her pain dove into the void that was her mind, harsher and more unremitting than ever. She looked blankly at Haka—

And suddenly, she found a third way to block out pain.

Fear.

He reached his fire-cloaked hand toward her face and

* * *

Azula screamed.

"Avatar!" Pathik yelled. "Avatar, calm down! That's only a vision! It isn't real!"

"Like hell!" Azula stood up, rage overtaking her. "That was no vision; I just relived the most painful moment of my life!" Stalking toward Pathik, she grabbed the front of his shirt and shouted, "Just what are you trying to pull here, Pathik!"

"These visions are a very important part of the Chakra-cleaning process. If you don't face your fears—"

"You made me relive the moment my eyes got torn out! Just what is _wrong_ with you!" Azula pulled her arm back, then punched him in the face, hard.

Or at least tried to. But when she expected to feel flesh, her fist met nothing but air. Even the she was gripping disappeared.

"I didn't intend to make you suffer such a deep pain again," Pathik said from behind her. "But if one of your greatest fears is tied up with that pain, it was likely unavoidable."

Azula had barely listened to him. "Just…just what _are_ you?"

"I temporarily dulled your senses to allow myself to escape. I apologize." And he did actually sound somewhat apologetic.

Maybe it was an after-effect of the…vision…but Azula wasn't able to hold her anger for long. It ebbed away quickly, leaving her alone with the pain and fear. "So you can just mess with my mind however you want, then?"

"No. I can control what you sense to a certain extent. I can even make you see things to a limited extent. But I cannot modify your thoughts, or your feelings."

Images from her memory flashed across her mind. Azula chuckled bitterly. "Not much of a difference there."

"Avatar." If Pathik's voice was apologetic before, it certainly wasn't now. "I do sympathize. But remember: What you are attempting to gain is the infinite power of the cosmos itself. That kind of power is not something easily granted, nor something that can be attained without great pain and sacrifice. I can guide you on this journey, but that is all. I cannot help you in any way. The only one who can grab the power that lies within you is yourself."

Azula didn't speak for a long time. When she finally did, she was pretty much resigned. "Okay. Fine. So I've relived my pain and fear. What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Tell me something, Avatar. What do you think 'fear' is?"

"Well…" Azula shrugged. "Something's about to hurt you, so you're afraid of it."

"Are you only afraid of immediate pain?"

"…No…"

"Are you only afraid of things that could hurt you?"

Azula was finally getting annoyed. "Maybe not. Why does it matter?"

Pathik let out a long breath. "It seems we need another example to work with."

"I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means."

"I am sorry, Avatar."

"Save your apologies, Guru. As you said, they don't help me in any way." Azula sighed. "I guess we might as well get on with it."

* * *

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

Immediately, Azula felt a wave of fire screaming at her. She breathed in, breathed out, and parted it easily, gathered up the remains with both hands, separated it, and sent at least twenty fireballs right back at him. Tremors in the ground told her that he had dodged to the right, which Azula matched, easily avoiding his counterattack. To stop him from gaining momentum, she launched her own wall of fire, then ran away, correctly anticipating Ozai's advance.

For her plan to—

Her foot hit a small rock and twisted.

As Azula stumbled, she realized her mistake. Despite her immense skill, running backwards, deflecting the attacks of the world's most powerful firebender, _and_ plotting out contingencies left too little room for error. One small mistake, one misplaced foot, would spell her doom.

It was little comfort as Ozai's foot smashed into her face, driving bolts of flame into her skull.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

Little by little, Azula could feel the pace slipping away from her, could sense her assaults turning into reactions, and then into desperate countermeasures. Little by little, her fear, long pent-up, started to leak out of her heart, threatening to overwhelm her.

Suddenly, she sensed that Ozai was quickly approaching her. She tried to rocket away, but her fear had dulled her reactions just one second too much. Before she could get away in time, Ozai sent a huge blast of fire at her, and her hands were too busy making rockets of flame to block it.

At least the pain didn't last long, as Ozai sent a bolt straight into her heart.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

And caught the lightning with her hand.

The pure, unbridled, _ki_ energy of the lightning felt like lava. With time as slow as it was, she could feel the impact as the lightning barreled its way through her arm, crashing against and destroying all in its way as it charged to her shoulder.

Then, just as Iroh had taught her, she _bent_ it, sending the searing _ki_ down into her—

Azula hadn't thought it was possible, but time got even slower as the lightning entered her heart. Maybe it wasn't that surprising; she had never actually done this before, after all. Prodigy or not, why was she so sure she could succeed doing something like this the first time she tried?

At least time did her the favor of speeding up when the actual pain began. That way, it lasted less than a second.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

Ozai moved left. Azula had guessed he would move right. Her defenses were a sliver of a second too slow, but that was enough for her entire right side to get engulfed by flame, which was enough distraction for Ozai to send a bolt right into her head.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

Azula rocketed away. The wind currents told her an attack was coming. She dodged, but a line of fire she had missed collided into her, knocking her out and insuring her death.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of the Agni Kai._

The lightning traveled just a bit faster than she had expected, and sent her smoking to the ground.

_The gong sounded, signaling the start of_

* * *

This time, it wasn't really a scream; it was more a very long, drawn-out groan.

"How are you, Avatar?" Pathik asked, somewhat gently.

"What's with these visions?" Azula grumbled. "This time, I saw things that never even happened."

"Of course you did. As you yourself said, we do not fear what _has_ occurred, we fear what we think _might_ occur."

Azula sighed. "Okay, Guru, I think you owe me an answer now. Exactly how does fear block survival?"

A rock split off from the mountain they were in, and Azula could feel each and every vibration perfectly as it tumbled down the slope and crashed onto the ground below.

"Tell me, Avatar. What did you see in your most recent vision?"

Azula's hand rose to pick at her eye sockets, but before it could get that far, she grabbed it with her other hand and shoved it to the ground.

"I had a plan to kill Ozai. I saw ways it could've failed."

"And if you had given in to your fear of failure?"

Azula bit her lip. "He might still be alive. So what? I would've lived, too."

"And whatever makes you _think_, Avatar, that I was talking about _life_ when I said 'survival'?"

"…What?"

"We all have a very limited opportunity to be on this Earth. To the spirits, time is an illusion—it does not matter to them whether we live for one year or one hundred years. And the Chakras channel spiritual energy. So what makes you think the Earth Chakra would be concerned about the survival of your _life_?"

"What else could 'survival' _possibly_ mean?"

"Tell me this. If you were to always refrain from doing something you were afraid of, what kind of life would you live?"

"That's…again, I'm not really afraid of that much."

"Anything. Even if the fear is extraordinarily slight."

"Well…"

* * *

The anti-colonial terrorist group was awfully weak, so Azula unconsciously stopped paying perfect attention. She paid for this laziness with an arrow through the head.

As she talked with Long Feng, Azula could tell he was displeased with her attempts to control him. What she couldn't tell, until it was too late, was that he had put poison in her food.

She knew Mai didn't like her, or her policies. She didn't know Mai felt strongly enough to stick a knife into her throat.

Without any earth around, Azula had to depend on her air current sense to see in the South Pole. This failed to inform her about the thin ice she was about to step on, or that the water beneath it was cold enough that she wouldn't be able to pull herself out in time.

You never knew what diseases you might catch wandering around in the Earth Kingdom wilds. This one just happened to be deadly.

Maybe it was inevitable. Maybe Azula had screwed up. Whatever the case, the colonial issue had finally blown up, and the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation were again at war. And Azula couldn't help but think of it as her failure.

Caring about other people was hard sometimes. Even though it was of old age, Iroh's death sent Azula into a deep ill mood that lasted almost a week.

It was a fairly routine battle. That didn't stop her wounds from being painful. It took almost two weeks to recover.

She had thought that, in Toph, she had finally found someone resembling a true friend. But one morning, the other girl just up and left, with no explanation. Maybe Azula just wasn't cut out for friends.

* * *

"Avatar?"

"…I fear pain, and death. But if I were to avoid everything with any risk of those…"

"Then?"

"I guess I'd just live by myself and grow rice all day."

"And that would go far to ensure the survival of your life. But it would cost the survival of something else, wouldn't it? It would kill something else you have, something far more important."

"…"

"It's not just enough to _control_ your fear, Avatar. Even if you do so, your fear still influences you, still makes you focus too much on your own bodily survival. That might be good enough for an ordinary person, but not for the Avatar. You must _eliminate_ your fear."

"But I…I don't know how to do that."

"Tell me, Avatar. You said that you fear pain and death."

"Yes…"

"But what causes humans the most pain? What causes us the most suffering throughout our lives?"

"…How am I supposed to know that?"

"It's all right if you don't. I believe you still have one more vision to experience anyway."

"And what might that be?"

"Your biggest fear."

Azula sighed. "I should've guessed."

Pathik laughed. "Perhaps."

* * *

Azula gulped. Breathed in, breathed out. Shuffled her feet. Then cursed herself for being such a coward and slammed the door open.

A second passed in silence.

"Come on in," said a voice Azula hadn't heard in over ten years.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Swallow.

Azula entered the small house.

It was weird. None of the things she was able to see—body movements that displace air, footsteps that cause vibrations—were familiar. Only the voice conjured up half-formed memories.

"Go ahead, sit down. I'll make some tea."

Neither of them said anything as Azula sat on the ground, listening to her mother make tea.

Neither of them said anything as they sipped from their respective cups.

Naturally, Mother was the one who first broke the silence. "How is it?"

"It's good," Azula said weakly.

Minutes more passed in silence.

"So," Azula eventually stammered out, "how've you, um, been?"

"As you might expect," Mother said. There was no discernable tone in her voice.

Swallow. Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Um. How was your talk with Zuko?" Azula asked.

"I apologized to him. He apologized to me. We hugged each other and cried."

"Oh. That's good."

"Indeed it is. He offered to move me into the Palace, but I refused. He'll visit me once a month instead."

"Why?"

"I _am_ the traitor who killed Firelord Azulon. It would cause him undue trouble were he to pardon my crime."

Azula internally smacked herself and bit her lip. "Of course."

"Besides, I've gotten used to my life here. It's not so bad."

"That's, um, good."

"Under a certain point of view, I suppose."

Silence stretch on for more minutes. Azula's suddenly parched throat made her finish her tea quickly, but she couldn't bring herself to ask for more. She just mindlessly rotated the empty cup.

"So," Azula eventually said, "some Earth Kingdom provinces are—"

"Why did you come visit me?"

Azula's thoughts slammed to a halt. "Huh?"

"Why did you visit me?" Mother repeated. Her voice still lacked any discernable tone, but somehow, it still felt like nails were being driven into Azula's head with each word. "Did you want my praise? My forgiveness? My contrition? Did you want me to say 'You're doing a great job as Avatar, Azula'? 'I'm sorry I thought you were a monster, it turned out I was wrong'? Just how did you expect this conversation to go?"

Azula tried to swallow, but all the saliva in her mouth had dried up. She tried to breathe, but her throat had constricted into a thin line. "I, I didn't…"

"Just _what_ do you want me to say? Azula?"

Azula threw her teacup across the room. It shattered with a crash. "Yes!" she shouted. "Yes, I did expect you to apologize to me, to forgive me! You thought I only card about myself, but _I_ ended the War and kept the world at peace, so all those looks you gave me, all those things you used to imply with those meaningful pauses and—"

"_Are still true_."

Azula's words stumbled over themselves in reaction to the unexpected interruption. "Are—what? Huh?"

"You might have ended the War, Azula, but we both know that was an irrelevant side issue to you. You spent over two years of your life obsessed with one thing: killing Ozai. _Your own father_. Do you expect me to praise you for patricide, Azula?"

"I, I mean…"

"Now, let's talk about you 'keeping the peace.' How many Fire Nation citizens did you have killed for happening not to agree with Zuko's policies? How many Earth Kingdom governors did you assassinate and replace with yes-men because they expressed interest in gaining more independence from Ba Sing Se? Just how many Water Tribesmen are getting crushed between the gears of 'progress' in your efforts to _modernize_ them?"

"Those are…"

"How many Earth Kingdom refugees have you told, 'Sorry, you can't return to your ancestral homeland, I'm letting the Fire Nation keep the colonies they stole in the War'?"

"Those are all for the greater good!"

Silence for a second. Then, "Oh, I _am_ proud of you, Azula. Only twenty years old, yet you already sound exactly like your father."

"_I am not my father_!"

But even as she said it, Azula could already feel the world slipping away, could already feel her senses fading out, could already feel herself floating in an endless sea of darkness.

"You may pretend to have reformed, Azula," Mother said, voice still lacking all tone. "You may tell yourself you've become a good person; you've renounced your earlier worldview. But we both know that's not true. You were _born_ a monster, Azula, and you will remain one until the day you die. And I will never apologize for telling you that.

"Now get out of my house."

* * *

Azula didn't know how long it was before she regained her cognitive capacity.

"Have you recovered, Avatar?" Pathik asked. He sounded almost worried.

The cloth over Azula's eye sockets was damp with sweat and a few tears by now, so she took it off, tossed it onto the floor, and burned it. She figured Pathik didn't care one way or the other. "In a manner of speaking," she said.

"I am puzzled about something, which is quite rare," Pathik went on. "Are you afraid the things your mother said are true, or are you afraid your meeting with her will go like that?"

Azula gave a short, grim chuckle. "Both. Neither. They're the same thing. Does it really matter?"

"Perhaps not."

"So now what? I've experienced my biggest fear, or had a vision of it, or whatever. I still don't feel like I've come close to eliminating my fear."

"Try this. Do you still remember how you felt at the end of that vision, when pure, crushing terror gripped your heart and prevented you from thinking, feeling, or doing anything?"

Azula bit her lip. "I can't imagine ever forgetting it."

"Then feel it again. But not just for one second this time. Let that feeling seep into your pores, let it flood your arms and legs and head until nothing but the endless void of fear is left."

"…And then?"

"Breathe in, breathe out, and let it all flow away."

"Will that really work?"

"You never know until you try."

Azula sighed. She was tired of arguing, tired of most everything at this point. "All right. Whatever. Let's do this."

* * *

When Azula woke up, it felt like her entire body was cramped.

"Did you have a good nap, Avatar?"

"Very funny." Azula tried to stand up, but her legs collapsed under her. She cursed. It felt like she was back on the South Pole, right after Kalu had fixed her limbs and she was learning how to walk again. "How long was I out for?"

"As I've told you before, all lengths of time are equally instantaneous to the enlightened."

"Oh right. How could I forget?"

"But I must congratulate you, Avatar. You have managed to open the first Chakra."

"Joy." Azula didn't feel any different. Well…maybe a _little_ different...but it was only a vague sense that she was somewhat more at ease, and she wasn't willing to credit Pathik with that. "Is opening all the Chakras going to be like this?"

"I believe you should be able to guess the answer to that question."

Azula sighed. "The others will be worse. Of course."

"I would offer you a chance to rest, but as I said, once you begin this process, you must see it through to the end. Unless you cut yourself off from it completely, even sleep will not relax you."

Azula nodded. She was feeling the truth of _that_ statement at the moment. "All right. No time like the present, right?"

"Time is an illusion, Avatar."

"If I could, I would punch you. Right in the face."

Pathik laughed. "Faces are also illusions, Avatar."

"…I have no idea if you were just serious or not. That scares me."

"If that's the truth, we'll have to work at re-opening your Earth Chakra again." And he proceeded to laugh once more.

Azula smacked herself. Right in the face.

* * *

**End of Chapter 7**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **See, I told you I'd be back on a more regular update schedule! Although the Enlightenment chapters are surprisingly easy to write. Perhaps it's a combination of a clear structure and a strong secondary character. And writing them is actually quite fun.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	8. Adventures in the Earth Kingdom

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 7.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Adventures in the Earth Kingdom**

* * *

Before arriving at Omashu, Azula and the others found a small, out of the way village and decided it might be nice to stay in an actual building instead of sleeping in the wilderness. That village called itself Chin. A name that Azula felt like she had heard before, but figured was probably a coincidence.

This turned out to be a mistake.

Azula was fairly easy to recognize as the Avatar, and the residents of this village hated the Avatar for some obscure reason or another that didn't really make much sense. Azula also may or may not have made a crack about how stupid they were. In any case, one thing led to another and they ended up trying to arrest her.

Now, in ordinary circumstances, Azula would've been perfectly willing to work with their _reliable_ and _principled_ justice system in order to come to a conclusion amicable to all concerned parties. However, there was a war going on, and Sozin's Comet wasn't exactly going to wait. Sometimes, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Besides, trying to arrest the _Avatar_? Really, what were they _expecting_ was going to happen?

"Did you have to burn down their houses?" Naya asked as they, yet again, prepared to sleep on the ground.

Azula chafed at her waterbending instructor's accusatory tone. "Look, we needed some sort of distraction. If I didn't burn their homes, I'd have had to burn their bodies. The former is preferable, yes?"

"I still say I could've found out the truth if you would've let me," Sokka grumbled.

"Man, it sure is a blast, traveling with you guys," Toph said. "Saving the world, one demolished village at a time."

"I didn't burn down _all_ of it."

* * *

Funny thing about the Western part of the Earth Kingdom: there were Fire Nation soldiers there. A fairly significant number of them, in fact. The closer Azula and the others got to Omashu, the more patrols they ran into—unsurprisingly, considering Omashu was second only to Ba Sing Se on the Fire Nation's 'to conquer' list. The sheer numbers eventually convinced Azula to overcome her trepidation at entering another Earth Kingdom village and actually attempt to gather information about an alternate route to the city.

Naturally, nobody knew any. Well…almost…

"The Cave of Two Lovers?" Azula asked, feeling slightly dirty just by having the words pass her lips.

"Yes," Kalu said, amused as always. "Apparently, the titular two lovers couldn't meet in the open because their peoples were at war, so they built a tunnel in secret."

"And then they placed a curse on it."

"That if you didn't trust in love, you'd be trapped forever. And presumably die."

"Not to be a contrary asshole like Azula," Toph said, earning her a kick from said Azula, "but I spent most of my life getting lectured by the best tutors my parents could buy. If something like this actually existed, I think I would've heard of it."

"It's obviously a legend," Kalu said lightly, "and it might be limited to this area. Or did you learn much about Earth Kingdom cultures other than Gaoling's and Ba Sing Se's?"

Azula grinned, happy that Kalu was pissing off someone other than her for once. Then she remembered their current situation, which doused her temporary good mood. "So you're suggesting we look for some sort of ancient tunnel based on a legend, that may or may not also have a death curse?"

"Unless you have a better idea…"

"I'd rather deal with the Fire Nation."

* * *

So long story short, it turned out the Cave of Two Lovers really did exist.

"Wow," Toph said as she led them to the mountain. "These tunnels are _really_ elaborate; you guys have no idea. It's a masterpiece of design. I could look at them for days and not get bored."

"Mm," Azula grunted. Toph was still much better at seismic sense than her, and she never tired of pointing it out.

"I'm not sure I'm getting across just how amazing these are. If these two lovers really did exist, they must've been some of the best earthbenders ever to exist—maybe even almost as good as _me_."

"They sound like gods."

"I know, right? There's this one tunnel…"

Azula sighed. It was going to be a long trip.

* * *

It might be surprising, but it's the truth: tunnels are _dark_. Really dark. Dark enough that only Azula and Toph could see anything without artificial illumination.

Luckily, Kalu made it a point to prepare for most anything, and he had some torches with him. In addition, while the seismic sense discerns less detail the more widely you spread it out, it should have been eminently possible for them to lead the others out of the cave.

Theoretically.

"Where are you going, Hot Lips?" Toph asked as Azula approached the left side of a fork.

"Um, out of the cave."

"That's a dead end."

Azula sighed and looked at the others, giving a silent command to _Stay out of this_. "Look Toph, I know your foot is far more of an earthbending master than my entire being could ever hope to become, but there is _not_ a dead end down this path."

"Well, not _immediately_," Toph said, her tone slowly growing more and more grating, "but eventually, all the forks off of that path lead to walls. The right one goes on for much longer."

Okay, _now_ Azula was getting _really_ annoyed. "Oh come on. I already checked the right path, and it just ends up looping back here."

"Check it again."

Azula bit her lip. "Fine. But I swear—"

…_Crap._

"See?" Toph said triumphantly.

"I swear to Agni, that path didn't used to be there."

"I'm sure." Toph started walking down the right path.

"Toph, don't go there. We need to think about this. The tunnels might be changing."

"That's ridiculous. You just fail at seismic sensing."

"I told you to _stop_!" Azula shouted, bending a gust of wind at her for emphasis.

Unfortunately, not only did that fail to convince Toph, it also ended up disturbing certain _other_ occupants of the tunnel. To be specific, a huge flock of wolf-bats. To make the situation more complicated, Toph and Azula couldn't actually see any of them, and Naya, the only other combat bender, was at a huge disadvantage underground against a crowd of enemies.

So perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that Azula and Toph got separated from the others during the ensuing chaos.

* * *

"I _told_ you the tunnels were changing." Now it was Azula's turn to gloat.

Toph grunted. "But I can't see anything that could be causing it."

"Is is that hard to admit you were wrong?"

"Yes it is, actually, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't press the matter."

Azula…didn't _snap_, really. But the combination of the current circumstances and Toph's general attitude did cause her irritation to boil over. "Okay look, Rock Face—"

"That's a horrible nickname."

"I don't care! Look, I was the one who rescued you from your family, remember? Do you think maybe a little gratitude would be appropriate?"

"You didn't _rescue_ me from anything, Hot Lips."

Azula smiled. The tone of Toph's voice made it clear she had just touched a nerve. "Because being a porcelain doll was just so much fun, right?"

"I could've left anytime I wanted to!"

"And yet you didn't. Why?"

"I'm sure you're about to tell me."

Azula wasn't even positive she believed what she was saying anymore, but it was too late to back down. "Because that life was all you knew. _I_ was the one who showed you a different life. That rescued you."

Toph actually laughed. "Oh, give me a break. I had already fought in the Earth Rumble four times; you didn't show me anything I didn't already know."

That tripped Azula up a bit, until she thought of just the _perfect_ response. "I showed you a home you could have apart from your family."

"This is not a home!"

In the corners of her sense, Azula could see the walls around them trembling, but she was so engrossed in the argument it barely registered. "And your parents' house was?"

"_Stop talking about my parents_!"

Azula laughed. "You didn't seem to mind me insulting them to their face when—"

Toph's tackle was fast, but not fast enough. Azula absorbed it gracefully and the two started rolling across the ground, trading punches and kicks, until the trembling around them became impossible to ignore.

"Um…Hot Lips," Toph said, disengaging in a truce gesture.

Azula was silent.

"We should probably do something," she continued.

"Can we stop this tunnel from collapsing?"

Brief pause. "Not sure, actually. Maybe."

"But probably not."

"Yeah."

They both stood up and started running as fast as they could.

* * *

"…Wow."

"Huh."

"This is interesting."

"Indeed."

Their unthinking run had somehow led them to a giant rock slab blocking the entrance to some sort of large cavern. It wasn't long before they figured out it housed a tomb, and not much longer before they found the inscriptions on the tomb.

While Toph's parents had never bothered teaching her letters, Azula remembered, and by tracing the incisions in the rock she was eventually able to make out the story. Neither of them said anything for a while after Azula recited the last word and they rested their hands on the last picture.

Someone had to break the silence eventually though, and it ended up being Toph. "That was a stupid story."

"Was it?"

"Yeah. The villages only ended up being at peace because Oma scared the crap out of them."

"Sounds realistic to me."

Toph snorted. "Maybe. But what kind of message is that? People will only live together if some higher power forces them to?"

"Again, sounds about right to me."

"Of course, but to _normal_ people, it's kind of screwed up."

Azula mock-bowed. "If you're saying I'm not normal, then my profuse thanks for the compliment."

The dam broke. The two of them laughed out all their pent-up anger and resentment.

"So," Toph said when they calmed down, "how're we going to get out of this place anyway?"

Azula smiled. "Well, I do have one—"

Her line of thought burned as soon as she realized its sheer stupidity. Unfortunately, the words had already come out, and she couldn't take them back. "Yes?" Toph asked expectantly.

"It's…never mind. It's stupid."

"Oh, come on."

"No, really. I have no idea why I even thought of it."

"Tien above, Azula, out with it before I sock you again."

Azula sighed deeply. While her life might not last much longer anyway, she'd prefer not to have Toph hounding her to the end of it. "Fine." She took a deep breath. "So you remember the curse about us being doomed in this cave without love?"

"Yes…"

"And you know how the end of the story talked about their love burning brightest in the dark or some such?"

"Go on…"

"And you, um…" Azula gulped. "You know the picture that accompanied—"

"Oh gods!"

"I told you!"

"How could you even _think_ that!"

"I told you! I _told_ you it was stupid!"

"There are some things you just don't say!"

The shouting match continued for a few more minutes. It didn't get any more meaningful, but it did serve as an effective cleansing ritual for the two of them.

It was only after they were resting, having spent another few hours futilely trying to navigate the shifting tunnels, that one of them brought it up again.

It was Toph that did it. "So…"

"What?" Azula grumbled, exhausted.

"About what you said earlier. Your, um, stupid idea."

Azula was too tired to engage in the obligatory cleansing ritual this time. "You aren't seriously thinking about it, are you?"

"Well…I mean…"

"Yes?"

"At this rate, we're never going to make it out of here. So I'm thinking we might as well, um, try."

Azula sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. It was a stupid, horrible, disgusting, and generally bad idea. There was literally no reason to expect it to work.

But…

If they were going to die anyway…

Fighting through an odd constriction of her heart, Azula muttered, "Fine."

Even though she said it, though, neither of them actually made a move to enact it. They just continued sitting awkwardly.

"So, um," Toph said, "how exactly are we going to do this?"

"Well," Azula said, speech ridiculously stuttering a bit, "one of us should probably…move toward the other."

"It's your idea."

"You brought it up again."

They eventually compromised in both moving half the distance.

"Okay…now what?"

Azula gulped. "I guess one of us needs to find the other's face. Um…"

Toph wasn't making a move, and Azula finally decided that since she was both older and more highly ranked, it was probably her job to actually…initiate the proceedings. So tentatively at first, then harshly in an effort to wrestle her timidity to the ground and smash it in the face, she groped toward Toph's face.

"Ow!"

"Sorry."

"You almost poked my eye out!"

"What a disastrous state of affairs that would be," Azula said, sarcasm coming out of reflex more than anything.

"Just, just do it gently, all right?"

Azula frankly had no idea if Toph was even aware of the innuendo, but it did serve to make her own heart beat faster. Trying her best to suppress the stupid reaction, Azula reached toward Toph's face again, aiming for some sort of happy medium speed. Whether or not she succeeded, Toph didn't complain, so she groped around until her hand rested on what seemed to be the other girl's nose.

_Well, stage two of the operation is complete_. "Now just sit still, I guess, and I'll position myself correctly…" Azula removed her hand and moved around until she was sitting directly opposite Toph.

Now all that was left was the action itself.

Azula gulped again. "So, probably," she said, her voice far more timid than it had any right to be, "we should do like last time and move simultaneously."

"Okay. Sure."

"Um…count of three?"

"Sounds good."

Azula's heart was pounding in her ears, and she was sweating far more than a firebender ever should. But it was too late to back out now. "All right then. One…

"Two…

"Three!"

Their foreheads banged together. Hard.

This caused no small amount of pain as the two of them lay on the ground groaning. And then pretending to groan so that they wouldn't have to talk or try again.

"That was not the best-made plan ever," Toph commented.

_This could be a fortuitous circumstance_, Azula reflected. After all, their failure could serve as the perfect excuse for giving up on the disgusting, stupid, no-good idea. All she really had to do was laugh, and then Toph would laugh, and they could pretend to forget the whole thing.

And yet, she couldn't bring herself to laugh.

So it was that a few minutes later they found themselves in the same position sitting across from each other. Azula had decided one of them would have to take the lead. And since she was both older and in a higher position…

Azula rested her hands on Toph's cheeks. Her skin was rough and chafed Azula's palms.

Azula leaned forward, feeling Toph's breath on her face. It was damp and moldy.

Azula's heart was beating so fast that it obscured all her other senses. All she could do was lean forward.

Toph's lips were…moist.

Azula slowly moved her head and hands away, not sure what she was, or should be, feeling.

Thankfully, they were saved from having to talk to each other when the tunnels around them suddenly started rumbling.

They awkwardly stood up and started to run, but it was too late. The rumbling got more and more severe—

And then she could feel it. Eight earthquake-causing footsteps that belonged to two huge beasts.

Azula smiled grimly. _Here I thought I was going to starve to death, now it turns out I'll get eaten instead._ She prepared to make a desperate last stand.

Then Toph shouted, "Wait!"

"What!"

"I think I know these guys!" Toph sounded more delighted than Azula had ever heard her.

"You…huh?"

"Yeah, I'm sure of it! They're my old earthbending sifus!"

"…_What_!"

* * *

"Welcome out of the cave, little Avatar." Kalu sounded happy as always.

Azula grunted.

"How'd you convince those badgermoles to take you out?"

Toph was the one who answered. "Oh, me and them go way back. Thanks again, guys!"

The badgermoles rumbled back into the mountain. Azula wanted nothing more than for them to take her memories with.

"So how'd you guys make it out?" Toph asked.

"Ooh, let me tell it!" Sokka said, then made his voice take on a pretentious, overly-dramatic tone. "There we were, lost and hungry, down to our last torch. Just as it burned down and we prepared to make peace with our gods…_bam_! The entire ceiling lights up, a path of stars directing us home!"

"…Huh?"

Naya translated. "The ceiling is lined with crystals that light up in the dark. They led us out of the cave."

The implications became clear to Azula quickly. She smacked herself in the head.

"What?"

"_That's_ what 'their love shines brightest in the dark' meant?"

* * *

After Omashu and King Bumi's tests, the five of them passed through the Great Divide without incident.

They also managed to cross the remainder of the way to Ba Sing Se relatively uninterestingly. Unless you counted Toph's gloating about how she singlehandedly got them tickets to the ferry.

At least she didn't bring up what happened in that stupid cave.

* * *

**End of Chapter 8**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **I actually have an excuse for this taking longer than it should; I've had a lot of RL stuff to deal with recently. I'll have a lot of it again in about a month, too, but I should be able to get a lot of writing done in the interim. We'll see.

I hadn't intended for most of this chapter to take place _before_ "The King of Omashu," but that's how it ended up; part of the perils of posting these chapters as I write them, I suppose. I might do a general re-write once I finish. In the meantime, though, do tell me if the chronology is too confusing.

As always, I hope you enjoyed it!


	9. Relationships

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 8.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Relationships**

* * *

The sun was hot that day.

"What did you want to talk about, Azula?"

Facing her bedroom mirror, Azula slowly and methodically trimmed her hair with a knife. Mai waited in the doorway. It was a trick Azula had learned from Father; let them think nice and long about just who held the power.

Mai had been trained well too. She held out for a long time—almost fifteen minutes—but eventually even she cracked.

"Azula?"

Azula smiled and turned to face the other girl. "I saw you with Zuko the other day."

When Azula had gathered information about Mai in the weeks after the two met, everyone told her the same thing: 'The girl shows no emotions.' After a few years, however, she learned that wasn't really the case. Mai never showed any positive signs of emotion, true, but Azula had found out it was possible to glean what she was feeling from what she _wasn't_ doing, and there were a whole lot of things Mai wasn't doing right now that she normally did.

She had a crush on Zuzu. Azula could barely contain her excitement. With this, she could kill two birds with one stone. Or maybe 'control' would be the better verb.

"What's your point?"

"Well, first, I wanted to thank you. Zuko doesn't have very many friends, you know. Or, well, any. I'm glad he has someone to talk to."

Mai grunted.

"But more importantly, Mai, I have a request."

"What is it?"

"Would you mind seducing him?"

Mai rarely displayed emotion positively. But rarely isn't never. For the first time, Azula saw her friend flinch back in shock.

"W-What?"

Azula gave a deep and dramatic sigh and stood up. Copying something she had seen Father do once, she walked slowly toward Mai, voice as deep and threatening-sounding as she could make it. "You see, Mai, I want to be Firelord someday. Father wants me to be Firelord someday. The job doesn't suit Zuko, anyway. He'd hate it. But just in case he's unwilling to give up his position as heir, it would be useful for me to have an ally near him."

Azula frankly had no idea what kind of political negotiations Mai had witnessed. She might even have participated in a few of them. But she did know that Mai had never seen something on the level of what Azula was proposing now.

So it wasn't too much of a surprise when Mai gave positive signs of an emotion the second time that day: fear. A fear so white-hot it drained what little color her face had, one that forced her eyes as far open as they could get.

Azula's pulse raced and her heart quickened. She had seen people with greater levels of fear, such as prisoners condemned to die, but this was the first time she herself had caused it with such intensity.

It felt good.

Mai barely managed to choke out her next words. "You want me to date Zuko…and then spy on him?"

Azula smiled in a happy manner. "Exactly! I'm so lucky to have a friend as smart as you, Mai."

"But I—"

Azula glared at her.

Ty Lee didn't really understand politics. The first time she disobeyed, Azula had tried to lightly remind her of just what her family could do to Ty Lee's. The second time, she tried to explain it subtly. The third time, she finally lost her temper and laid it out for the other girl in no uncertain terms.

Mai understood politics very well. She didn't have to be told or reminded once.

"All right."

It was a very hot day.

* * *

Nobody knew quite what to say.

After Ozai's death, Azula had put herself into self-imposed exile, returning one month later for the Peace and Reconciliation Summit. After that, she had spent a month attending to a few other urgent matters. But she finally had some free time, and decided to stop putting it off.

She sent letters to Mai and Ty Lee, asking them to meet her in the Fire Nation Palace. To talk.

_At least they showed up_, Azula thought.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Azula finally sucked it up and decided to say what she was going to say.

She breathed in and out, deeply. This wasn't going to be easy.

"First, I want to apologize."

They seemed shocked. Not surprising. Azula continued, not even pausing for breath. "I was a really bad friend to you both. You probably hate me. _I'd_ hate me."

Azula was getting winded with how fast she was talking, so she had to stop. As she took another breath in, she wasn't sure whether she wanted the other two to say something or remain silent. In any event, they did the latter, so Azula had to move on. "I'd like to start things over with you two. If you want. If you don't, though, I understand. You can walk out of the room, and I promise there won't be any hard feelings. But if you stay…maybe we can work something out."

That was officially the second-hardest thing she'd had to do in her life. Only learning airbending topped it. Fighting Ozai wasn't even close.

Ty Lee was the first one to speak. "Azula…"

Whatever she was about to say got interrupted by the sounds of Mai standing up and stomping toward the door.

"Wait, Mai!" Ty Lee tried to call out, but it was too late.

The _fusuma_ sliding door closed behind Mai with a bang.

After a moment, Azula heard Ty Lee's voice again. "Don't take that the wrong way, Azula. I'm sure she just—"

Azula chuckled. "No. She wants nothing to do with me. I guess I can't blame her."

Except that was a lie.

Maybe Azula _shouldn't_ blame her. She had entered this little meeting telling herself it was eminently possible, if not likely, for both of them to walk out on her. But deep in some irrational part of her brain, she still expected them both to forgive her and promise to put the past behind them.

Some deep irrational part of Azula thought she _deserved_ their forgiveness. And felt betrayed.

* * *

"I must admit, little Avatar, I didn't expect to have to do this again."

"Oh, shut up. And I'm already sixteen."

"And you'll always be shorter than me."

Azula grumbled. She had thought rounding up a group of bandits would be a nice vacation from playing babysitter for the world. However, she had hit a spell of bad luck, fell down hard, and put a little too much pressure on her old wound, breaking her arm again. "If you didn't want to do this again, you should've done a better job fixing it the first time."

Kalu clicked his tongue. "I set your bones perfectly back then. If you spend your time running after every small-time crook, don't blame me when you break something."

Going to him to fix it had seemed like a good idea at the time. "I don't tell you how to live your life, you don't tell me how to live mine."

Kalu laughed. "How you live your life affects how we _all_ live ours, little Avatar."

Azula grumbled again. Kalu was the one person in the world she hated arguing with. "Just set my damn arm."

There was only one thing that annoyed Azula more than Kalu talking: Kalu humming. "Actually, I think this would be good practice for my assistant. Would you mind?"

Kalu's 'assistant' was a twenty-five-year-old man named Uran. Of course, ordinarily, your assistant didn't live with you.

Needless to say, the true nature of their relationship was an open secret to everyone in the tribe.

In any event, Kalu was still a skillful healer. The procedure only took about a half-hour. He even shut up while doing it, although he did keep humming.

"All right, that's almost all of it. I have a house call to attend to, so could you apply the finishing touches, Uran?"

"Sure," Uran said. Azula didn't bother protesting.

The igloo developed an awkward silence after Kalu left. In an attempt to break it, and also because it had been on her mind a while, Azula decided to ask Uran a question. "You know what they say about you, right?"

"Huh?"

"What the other tribespeople say about you and Kalu, behind your backs."

He gave a short, bitter chuckle. "It's hard to miss."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

He spent a few minutes finishing the procedure before responding. "Of course it does. But not by much. I've been teased since I was a kid. Nowadays, they don't even say anything to my face, much less try to hurt me. And besides," Azula could discern a subtle shift in tone, "it's a lot easier when you're not alone."

Azula couldn't think of anything to say. Luckily, Uran changed the subject quickly so she wouldn't have to. "Anyway, keep your arm wrapped in this for a week, then come back so we can see how it's healing."

Azula nodded. "Thanks." She walked out of the igloo without another word.

* * *

"Hey, Azula!" As always, Aang was beaming, smiling a huge smile.

"Hi."

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

_You don't think there's maybe a reason for that? _"I've been kind of busy. You know, being the Avatar and all."

Aang nodded. "So could you talk about what you've done so far?"

Azula sighed. "Look, Aang. You're my mentor for spiritual matters, because that's what you're good at. Earthly matters are what _I'm_ good at. So let's each keep to our sphere of expertise, shall we?" She knew what his answer would be before she started speaking, but it was worth at shot at least.

And, indeed: "I've heard a bit about what you're doing from some of the other spirits here. I know you're acting out of a desire to keep the peace—"

"I don't want to have this discussion."

"—but don't you think it'd be better if you were a little less heavy-handed?"

"Tell me, Aang. Just how much did you learn about politics in your twelve years with the Air Nomads?"

Despite the bitterness in her tone, Aang didn't bite. Azula was half-hoping he would, to be honest. He just got a little sad. "I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, Azula. But do you really think I have _nothing_ to offer you?"

Azula cursed under her breath and kicked at the ground. "Don't give me that passive-aggressive routine, Aang, it won't work."

"My what?"

"Never mind." Azula tilted her head back and took a long, deep breath. By all rights, she should've just told him to mind his own business and give her advice regarding her newest spirit problem. But… "Fine. What do you want to say?"

Aang beamed.

_I suppose you have to sacrifice some things for friendship._

* * *

"Oh. Azula. I'm surprised to see you." Katara's tone made it clear she was feeling something other than 'surprise.'

_Trust me, I'm no happier about this_. "I want to talk about your pupils." After the War, Katara had started a tribeless waterbending school of sorts. Ever since Hama died, she was the best waterbender in the South, so she was in high demand.

"All right. Um, come inside, I'll make you something."

Azula tried not to think of anything as she sat in the igloo, waiting for Katara to boil water over a fire. After a perfunctory sip of the hot water, Azula got down to business. The two of them talked for an hour or so about her waterbending pupils and the influence they gave her over the other Southern tribes.

Needless to say, having many strong waterbenders from many different tribes indebted to her already made Katara one of the most politically powerful people on the continent. Not to mention, since Sokka had married into the Northern Water Tribe's ruling family, she was set to replace Hakoda as Chieftain of the largest Southern Tribe. She was soon going to become the single most important person in the South, by far.

Hence this somewhat lame attempt to patch up their relationship's old wounds.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?" Azula couldn't read Katara's tone, but she figured that was as good an invitation as she was ever going to get.

She did her best to sound contrite. "In those days, all I cared about was learning airbending and killing Ozai. I didn't really have time for…friends."

A pause. Then: "So you want to be friends?"

Azula chuckled. "That's likely impossible at this point. More like 'allies.'"

This time, the pause was longer. "What do you care about now?"

"Huh?"

"You said you used to only care about mastering airbending and killing Ozai. Well, you've done both. So _now_ what do you care about?"

The question was surprising to Azula. Her difficulty at answering it even moreso. "Keeping the world's balance," she eventually said, but it sounded like an excuse even to her ears.

Katara, naturally, wasn't fooled. "And why do you care about that?"

This was getting profoundly uncomfortable. "Look, does it really matter—"

"You say you want to be allies. But how can I ally with you if I don't know what you want?"

Azula's left hand had wandered close to her eye sockets before she forced it down. Scratching at those was a habit she had developed, tried to suppress, and only won a moderate victory. "For the past one hundred years, the Southern Water Tribes were united against the Fire Nation. Now the War's over, and inter-tribal conflicts have begun and intensified. I want to limit them as much as possible. You should want that too, correct?"

Katara didn't respond. Azula pressed on. "A civil war is in _nobody's_ best interest. Agreed?"

Eventually, Katara sighed. "All right. I guess that's fine for now."

Inwardly, Azula breathed a sigh of relief. She could deal with the 'for now' part later.

"So what do you want to do?" Katara asked.

Now Azula was back in her element. "Nothing, for now. I don't have nearly enough leverage yet. For the time being, keep training your pupils, and keep in touch with the ones who graduate. Eventually, you'll have to call in your favors."

"Understood."

As difficult as friendships were, alliances came to Azula as easily as breathing.

* * *

Azula didn't have a set schedule for meeting with Zuko. Instead, she basically hopped onto Zenmetsu and flew over to the Palace whenever he asked for her help. However, she _had_ impressed upon him the importance of _only_ calling her out for important political matters, and _not_ personal ones. And Zuko actually kept to that.

Well, except for when he used politics as the pretext.

"Did you really want to talk to me about this year's rice yield?"

Zuko sighed and fidgeted, and Azula could already see what was coming.

"Are you all right?" he asked eventually.

Azula bit her lip. "Why do you ask?"

"I've just…heard that you've been acting depressed recently."

Azula clenched her left fist reflexively. "While I can understand how my behavior might have given that impression, I've just been spending a lot of time thinking."

"About what?"

Azula didn't want to tell him about her battle with _that_ spirit, and all the matters it forced her to reconsider. But she knew she had to tell him _something_, if only to get him off her case. "About my own attitudes and motivations."

"What does—"

"I _don't_ want to talk about it."

Zuko seemed upset. "Look Azula, I'm just…"

"Just _what_?" Even Azula was surprised at the bitterness in her tone.

Zuko sighed again, this time deep and long, and when he started speaking again he was as serious as Azula had ever heard him. "I know you're making this stuff up as you go, with the world on your shoulders. So I'm worried about you. Okay?"

Azula was taken aback at the incongruity. Little Zuzu, who'd always been worse than her at everything, whose life she had done her best to make hell for years, worried about her?

Her confusion must have been evident, because Zuko seemed to read it perfectly. "Is it that strange to be worried about my little sister?"

To be honest, Azula didn't know how to answer that question. Somewhere deep down inside, she had never really thought of Zuko as family. He had just been another enemy. Even after her multiple 'revelations,' she had still kind of assumed Zuko thought of her in the same way.

To find out she was wrong was a strange feeling.

"You're such an idiot," she grumbled.

* * *

Azula absentmindedly tapped her fingers on the table. She shifted the tea cup around before sipping it.

It was annoying to admit it, but Iroh really did make good tea.

Azula and Iroh didn't meet up much anymore. They had never really liked each other, and unlike Zuko, Iroh didn't have any political power. For a reason she still couldn't comprehend, he had abdicated his position of influence in order to open a tea shop in a small Fire Nation town; he rarely even took any visitors. As far as Azula could tell, he was mostly waiting to die, and yet seemed happier than she had ever known him to be.

He was a very strange man.

After taking a big gulp from his own tea cup, Iroh started the conversation. "How's Zuko doing?"

Even though Zuko was much closer to Iroh than Azula, his lack of a flying monster to ride made it more difficult for him to take time out to visit his uncle. "Doing about as well as you might expect," Azula said evenly. "Mai and others are helping him out, so he's somehow holding the country together."

"I see." Another gulp of tea. While pouring some more for himself, he asked, "And how about you?"

"Has another war broken out yet?"

Iroh laughed at that one. "I suppose not," he said.

Azula sipped at her tea again. "Though to be fair, that might be because they're too engaged with domestic problems right now."

"I've heard such rumors," Iroh said, surprisingly without much gravity.

Ever since Lu Ten died, Azula had always known Iroh to be mostly dour. The change in personality was somewhat startling. "I guess after the huge foreign enemy leaves, you remember how much you hate each other."

Iroh laughed again. "The story of humanity."

They drank in silence for a time, until Azula just couldn't bear it anymore. "Why are you so damn happy?"

"Huh?" Iroh sounded genuinely confused.

"You're living by yourself in a town nobody's ever heard of! When you could've been the most powerful person in the Fire Nation! So why are you so happy?"

Iroh filled his teacup again, and as near as Azula could tell drained it all before talking. "I know it was a miserable few years for you, trying to learn airbending on the South Pole. But it was for me, too. Ever since Lu Ten died…" He paused, but started talking again quickly. "Ever since then, I've only truly been interested in tea and contemplation. Now that the world's in capable hands, I'm free to do just that."

Azula was taken aback by a lot of that, but true to form, she responded to the part that was about herself. "Did you just complement me, old-timer?" she asked, only half-teasingly.

Iroh chuckled. "Even your worst enemies can't deny you're _capable_, my dear niece."

Azula smiled. Even now, she couldn't understand why her uncle did half the things he did. She suspected he didn't understand her much, either. Even when the other was all they had, they didn't really get along.

But even with all that…well, they were family, after all.

Although Azula still didn't know precisely what that meant.

* * *

"Greetings, Avatar. Welcome to my humble abode."

"Um…apologies for intruding." Azula was usually able to handle court-speak, but it seemed to come to Yue totally naturally, so in her presence, Azula always started second-guessing herself. It was all the more galling because she was a Water Tribe barbarian, although to be fair the North was far more civilized than the South.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. I am always honored to have the Avatar as my guest." Seriously, while polite speech was normally used to tell someone how much you hate them in a civil manner, when Yue used it, she sounded completely honest. It was really weird.

"And I am always…honored to be here, Princess."

Yue held Azula's arm and led her through the palace. This was necessary because going barefoot on an ice floe is definitely a Bad Idea, and Azula couldn't navigate a building through airbending alone. It was a heavy indignity, but she managed to bear it with something resembling grace.

When they arrived at Yue's room, the two of them sat down and began talking. It had been over a year, so there were many topics that demanded discussion. While she didn't hold any political power herself, she did have good insight into the state of the Northern Water Tribe, its relations with foreign countries, and the personalities of its luminaries. Arnook was a good enough leader, to be sure, but he was a worse people reader than Yue. More importantly, his daughter was also much more open with Azula.

The events during the Siege of the North hadn't made the two of them _friends_, exactly, but they had established some sort of working relationship.

After getting through those political matters—Yue said that, while the North's official position was still neutrality concerning foreign affairs, there were efforts underfoot to support disunity in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation—Azula felt justified in satisfying one of her curiosities.

"On a different subject, Princess, I've heard certain…rumors."

"Yes?"

"Rumors about you." To be specific, they were about her inviting attractive young men to her room, but Azula left that part unsaid.

Yue understood after a few seconds. "Ah." She sighed. "Those."

She sounded quite sad, so Azula rushed to try to repair any damage she might have done. "Look, I'm not trying to judge you—"

"Yes Avatar," the other woman said, engaging in a rare act of interruption. "I know you aren't." She sighed again. "Give me a small amount of time to think about how to phrase what I want to say."

Azula did so. It didn't take Yue long. "I was infatuated with Sokka from the first time we met. He was my first love. I imagine it was the same for him. But that infatuation soon faded away, and when it did, we found out that we didn't really have that much in common." She sighed for a third time—it would've been for appearance's sake if anyone else had done it, but of course it honestly seemed genuine for her. "Our parents approved our marriage for political reasons, to unite the North and the South's largest tribe. At first, Sokka and I thought of that as just a fortuitous circumstance that let us be together. Now, we'd fall apart without it.

"We're still on friendly terms, of course, but only as acquaintances. We've both agreed to let the other do what they want. And…well, we both still have needs, after all."

Azula nodded, unable to think of anything else to do. She had known Sokka and Yue's relationship was in trouble for a while, but she had had no idea it was that bad. She had assumed they were just going through a temporary rough patch. After all, when last she had seen them, they were disgustingly lovey-dovey.

Perhaps sensing her shock, Yue chuckled. "Don't make that face, Avatar. It isn't as bad as all that. We just weren't meant for each other, that's all. You should know that one doesn't have to be in love to be married."

* * *

After gaining the throne, one of Zuko's major projects had been locating his and Azula's mother. Nobody alive knew where she was, so it had taken a long time. Eventually, though, five years after the war, he had finally tracked her down to a small, remote, irrelevant Earth Kingdom village.

All that was left of Ursa was a grave.

The villagers said it was a disease. They had had no idea what it was, and lacked the means to transport her to someone who did.

Zuko had asked Azula if she wanted to visit the grave with him. She declined. Instead of moving the grave to the Palace, Zuko just renovated and expanded the one that was there. He didn't even cremate the body. Azula didn't know why and didn't really care.

She hadn't intended to ever go there. And yet, six months after it was found, Azula found herself there, by herself, in the dead of the night, wind howling outside.

_Zuko really did do a good job with this_, she thought. And he had—what previously was a wooden stake in the ground had become a grand stone structure, a throne in the center inscribed with Ursa' epitaph. Above it hung an incense holder that even Azula could tell was a masterpiece of craftsmanship with her touch.

Of course, she was only really thinking about that stuff to distract herself.

Azula leaned against one of the walls and sighed. "Just what am I doing here?" she asked the empty air.

She felt stupid, talking to herself. But there wasn't really anything else to do there, so she decided to keep going. "So Zuko spent five years looking for you, and in the end just found an unmarked grave. Awfully anticlimactic, isn't it? And to think, I had spent so much time thinking about what to say to you if we ever met again." She laughed. "It seems the universe has a way of screwing up all my plans, huh?"

Azula stood up and walked to the stone throne. As she ran her hand along its rim, her mouth moved without her thinking about it. "You babied him so much; he was always a mama's boy. Without Mai, the Fire Nation would have fallen apart by now. But, I admit, he is doing better than I thought he would."

Azula leaned forward, crossing her arms on the top of the throne and resting her head on her arms. "I do wonder," she whispered, "what you would say if you saw me today. I've tried to imagine it myself, but each time you say something different."

She sat up from that position, stretched, and started slowly pacing around the room. "It always frustrated me, you know," she said. "Everyone always said I was better than Zuko at everything—intelligence, perception, firebending talent. But you still loved him and hated me. I couldn't figure it out until I stole a look at your journal one time." Azula smiled grimly at the memory. "'There's something seriously wrong with Azula. I often wonder where I went wrong in raising her.' You wrote that when I was six. And how long did you have suspicions you couldn't put into words? Since I was five? Four?"

Azula lay down on the cold rock, facing upwards. "Ever since then, I decided I hated you and paid attention only to my fath…Ozai. So sometimes, I wonder…how much of my personality is a result of what he made me, and how much of it is a result of me rebelling against you? Was I a monster first, or did you think I was a monster first?"

Azula sighed again. She knew this was stupid. It's not like talking about this here was any different than talking about it anywhere else. There were no answers waiting for her here.

She stood up and walked to the exit. The strong winds intruded into the structure and bit at her skin, causing her to shiver a bit.

And she stopped, for a reason she couldn't quite explain.

Without knowing why, Azula reached up and untied the bands holding her hair up. Her long black hair fell freely.

A memory floated to the surface.

"_You have such beautiful hair, Azula."_

Azula smiled, touching the flowing locks. "You did love this, didn't you?"

Without thinking, Azula withdrew a small knife from her tunic and hacked at her hair. Holding the freed locks with her left hand, she cut and slashed until all that remained were uneven strands that didn't even reach her shoulders.

The Palace court would've been horrified. No proper Fire Nation lady would've been caught dead with hair like that. But she was the Avatar now, so who cared what they thought?

Azula floated to the stone throne and draped the cut strands on it.

Along with a few tears.

"Rest in peace, Mother."

* * *

On her twentieth birthday, Azula received many presents. She didn't care for any of them.

At the end of the day, though, Toph shoved a small package into her hands.

"What is this?" Azula asked.

"Just open it." Toph sounded impatient.

Azula moved her nose up and down, a gesture of contempt, and tore apart the rice paper wrapping. But when her fingers touched the gift inside, she gasped.

She was feeling the purest, most high quality silk she had ever seen. Moving her hands along the cloth, she felt inlaid gems spelling out her favorite _kanji_—'power.'

"This is…" Azula whispered.

"You've been saying you wanted a new eye covering, right?"

Silently, Azula removed her old cloth and tied the new one around her head, making sure the _kanji_ character was placed in the exact center.

She wasn't sure exactly what she could say to Toph. So she just said "Thanks."

She would never know whether the other woman understood the emotions Azula was feeling at that moment.

* * *

**End of Chapter 9**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Not much to say about this one. The idea of someone giving Azula a new eye-covering cloth as a present came from my beta.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	10. Enlightenment, Part 2

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 9.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

**Timeline Reminder: **The 'Enlightenment' chapters take place approximately one year after Ozai's death.

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Enlightenment, Part 2**

* * *

Pathik insisted on changing locations before they began working on the second Chakra. Now, they were sitting on a giant stone pillar next to a waterfall.

Azula still half-suspected he was screwing with her.

"The second Chakra is the Water Chakra, located at the sacrum."

"Where?"

"The pelvis."

"…Ah."

"In any event, this Chakra deals with pleasure and is blocked by guilt."

_So the pleasure chakra is located near the genitals. How creative. _"I have one question, before we begin with this."

"Why is pleasure blocked by guilt?" Pathik offered.

"Do you have to keep reminding me you can read my mind?"

Pathik laughed. That laugh was starting to really annoy Azula. As was every other part of Pathik. "Actually, I could guess that by myself."

"Why?"

"Because you were dubious about the relationship between survival and fear in the Earth Chakra."

Azula tried her best, but she was unable to come up with a good response to that. "Okay, true. So could you explain it?"

"Hmm. First, how about you—"

"Don't tell me you're going to force me to have visions again."

"Actually, I was going to have you just tell me what you feel guilty of."

"…Oh."

"But if you want to have more visions—"

"No no," Azula spoke quickly, "your idea is perfectly fine, Guru."

That earned her another laugh from Pathik. Bastard.

Shaking it off, Azula took a deep breath and started searching through her memory.

"Well?" Pathik asked after a few minutes.

"I'm going to be honest with you, Guru. Guilt is a somewhat foreign emotion for me."

"How's that?"

Azula bit the inside of her cheek. "If you've read my mind, you should know. I wasn't exactly the nicest person in the past. I'm still not really a very nice person."

"Hmmmm…"

_Agni, that noise…_ "What is it?"

"You seem very invested in this view of yourself as a terrible person."

"'Invested'?" _Talk about weird word choice…_

"Perhaps we'll talk about that more later. If you have trouble with the concept of guilt, why don't we start with what you blame yourself for?"

"…I guess that's easier to work with," Azula admitted.

She shifted, trying to get into a more comfortable sitting position. This would probably take a while.

"I guess I'll start with my brother…"

* * *

Pathik didn't say a word while Azula detailed her part in her ruined relationships with Zuko, Mai, and Katara.

"But I guess you already knew all that, from when you read my mind," Azula grumbled after she finished.

"First of all, I'm not reading your mind. I'm seeing your spirit. It doesn't let me look at your memories in nearly as much detail as you just gave me."

"I'm relieved."

"And even if it did, I think it was beneficial to you for you to say that much aloud."

_Sure doesn't feel that way._ "I suppose. So, now what?"

"Well, let's examine these events closer. Why did you do the things you did?"

"I just told you why."

"You only talked about the circumstances," Pathik said, sounding annoyed. "What I was asking was—"

"Yes, I know what you were asking. You want to know what underlying reason there was behind all three. Right?"

"Indeed."

Azula smiled grimly. "Don't sound so confused, Guru. I was just trying to buy some time." She leaned her head back. "What's there to tell? I treated them like crap because I held them in contempt. It's not complex."

"So why did you—"

"—hold them in contempt?"

Pathik chuckled briefly. "It seems you can see my spirit as well."

"Ha ha." Azula continued leaning back for a while, listening to the roar of the waterfall as it plunged into the murky depths below.

She waited for Pathik to say something, but he never did. Stubborn bastard. Oh well.

"Why don't I tell you a story?" Azula finally said.

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. Innocent and pure, she played with her parents, grandfather, and older brother every day. They had so much fun together, just the five of them alone in their tiny house.

Then one day, the little girl did a bad thing. She wandered outside.

On the outside, she saw an old man, sitting all by himself with a tin tray in front of him, a few coins scattered inside. The little girl's grandfather, just as old as this man, was taken care of and loved, but this man was spat upon and kicked by passers-by.

The little girl wandered on and saw a sick man, with boils all over his body. Her older brother had looked like that, once, but her parents had applied a little balm and he had gotten all better. Nobody was giving this man any balm, though. Instead, another man was slicing the boils off with a knife, causing the sick man to scream out in pain each time.

The little girl wandered on and saw a sleeping man, face down on the street, rats gnawing at his flesh. She scared the rats away and tried to get the man to wake up, but he wouldn't stir. She groaned and grunted and eventually managed to turn him over, only to see that his face had rotted and melted off, leaving only bones locked into a grimace.

The little girl wandered on, passing by other broken, tired, dirty, hungry men, until eventually, she saw someone different. This was a clean, handsome, well-dressed man, wandering the city with a smile on his face. When he passed the other men, they all bowed down and lay their faces on the ground, and despite having almost nothing, they all gave one object or another to the clean man. He accepted all the gifts with that same smile, putting them into a sack he carried.

Confused, the little girl approached the clean man and asked him a question. "Who are you?"

The clean man looked down at her, still smiling. "I am a wandering monk. Who are you, my dear?"

"I'm a girl. What's a 'monk'?"

"A monk is a person who can commune with the spirits."

"Is that why everyone gives you stuff?"

The clean man chuckled. "Indeed. They believe that if they gain my favor, I'll intercede with the spirits on their behalf. Then the spirits might lift them out of their misery."

"Will you, then?"

The clean man chuckled again. "Even the spirits can't change fate, my dear. All of our destinies are set from the moment we are born. Most of us are destined to live hard and empty lives. On the other hand, some of us," he jiggled the sack with the gifts he was given, "are destined to receive whatever excess the empty ones happen to obtain. This allows us to live pleasant and full lives."

The little girl didn't know quite what to say. The clean man chuckled a third time at her confusion. "Don't worry, my dear. Nobody can change fate. We can only fulfill the roles we were given."

Her parents found the little girl then and took her back home, but the clean man's words continued to ring in her ears.

No matter what, she wasn't going to be an empty one.

* * *

There was silence for a time. Then Pathik spoke.

"As parables go, that was rather uninspired."

"Oh?"

"An old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a wandering monk?"

Azula shrugged. "I may have read something similar to that while studying some obscure, dead religion."

Pathik cleared his throat. Loudly.

"Would you like to say something?" she asked in her most polite tone.

_The Fire Nation is the one who _made_ that religion dead_, she was sure he wanted to say. But he didn't. "So," he said, clearly anxious to change the subject, "I believe what you were trying to say with that story was obvious enough."

"Do tell."

"You believed that your brother and friends were…"

"Empty ones, yes. I believed that they lived empty, meaningless lives, fit only to give whatever they could to people who were actually worth something."

"'People' meaning yourself."

"Naturally."

Pathik let out a long sigh. "I understand. But you are different now, correct?"

Azula was silent.

"Correct?"

She remained silent.

"You brought this up when I asked you what you blame yourself for. That means you must have changed."

"Yeah. I did. I mean, I obviously did. Just…not by a lot."

Pathik didn't say anything. Since he could read her mind, or spirit, or whatever, he must have known she'd go on without him saying a word. The bastard.

"I do blame myself for what I did to them. But I don't think it's because I hurt them. I think I blame myself for not having them as my allies anymore, for losing…tools."

Azula lay back, putting her head on the cold stone below her. Pathik let out a long sound, kind of like a 'hmm' but different.

They were silent for a long time. Pathik was the one who spoke first.

"Now I have a story for you, Avatar."

* * *

There was once a little girl. She went too far into the ocean and drowned.

* * *

Pathik evidently found his joke very hilarious, and demonstrated his opinion through voracious laughter.

Azula had a somewhat different opinion. "Yes, yes, very clever."

"My apologies, Avatar," Pathik said through his laughter, "I couldn't resist."

"I'm sure."

"But there is a tale I do wish to tell."

Azula lay down, putting her head on her arms. "Be my guest." _Not like I have anything better to do_.

* * *

There was once a woman with five sons. She loved them all very much.

The eldest son fell in with a bad crowd, and started fighting all the time. One time the fight escalated and he ended up with a knife in his throat.

In order to make sure her second son avoided this fate, the mother didn't allow him to have any friends. But the loneliness made him miserable and he ended up committing suicide.

In order to make sure her third son was never sad, the mother gave him everything he wanted. This made him naïve and weak, easy prey for those who would feed on others. One night he was beaten, robbed, and killed.

In order to make sure her fourth son was self-sufficient, she trained him in all the combat arts she knew. But his strength made him cocky, and wont to challenge others to fights. Same as the eldest, one fight escalated and his upper leg got sliced deep by a sword. He bled to death soon afterward.

Out of grief for her sons' fates, the mother locked herself in her room, alone with her misery. Her youngest son died of neglect.

* * *

"Oh, you're just a bundle of joy today, aren't you?"

"I would appreciate you showing an emotion other than sarcasm, Avatar."

Azula grumbled.

"I assume you see my point?"

"No, I think you may have been too subtle. Why don't you try hammering it home a little stronger, for the benefit of the audience?"

"No matter how much you attempt to push me away with your biting wit, Avatar, this journey is about yourself. And you are the only person you cannot run away from."

Azula sighed. It was like the guy could only speak in pretentious-sounding garbage.

"You do see my point."

"I spend too much time blaming myself. Right?"

"Precisely. What the mother failed to understand is that misfortune and misery happen. They cannot be avoided. She needed to accept that reality and move past it. She needed to forgive herself. Then, she might have saved her other sons."

Azula bit the inside of her cheek. "So I need to forgive myself. Is that it?"

"Yes. You wanted to know why the pleasure Chakra is blocked by guilt, correct?"

"Mm."

"Pain does not block pleasure. Misery does not block pleasure. Even if one possesses both, happiness is still possible. However, if we allow our spirits to be clouded with guilt, we start to dislike ourselves, to hate ourselves. If a person hates himself, then he feels unworthy of pleasure; he feels pain is his just reward. The more happiness he feels, the more guilt he feels. It is a cycle one cannot escape. Only guilt makes us turn our pleasure into pain."

"And you think I do that?"

"I _know_ you do that."

Azula bit her cheek even harder. She tasted blood. "But if you don't feel guilty when you do something wrong, what'll stop you from doing that thing again in the future?"

"Don't tell me you're defending guilt now, Avatar," Pathik said, evident amusement in his voice. "I believe you told me guilt is a foreign emotion for you?"

Seriously. Bastard. "I know of it in an academic sense, and can see its benefits, even if I don't experience it myself."

"Oho. I'm impressed you managed to come up with that defense on the spot."

_Okay, now he's _trying_ to piss me off_. "Thanks for the compliment. Now will you address my argument?"

"If you wish." Pathik made a show of thinking about it, 'hmm'ing and all that, but Azula suspected he already had his response all lined up. "It is all well and good to learn from your mistakes. But if you allow yourself to feel guilt over them, you limit your potential to love not only yourself, but others as well."

"…How does _that_ follow?"

"It's actually quite simple. If you can't even love yourself, how can you possibly love anyone else?"

Azula opened her mouth, then closed it. Then did so again. Finally, she said, "That's really stupid."

"Thank you."

"But, look. If you never feel guilty, no matter what you do, doesn't that _mean_ you don't care about anybody else? I mean, if you're just blasé about hurting people, or…"

"If you actively enjoy it?"

"Yes, exactly."

"You are correct, Avatar. If you don't feel guilt, you don't love others. But if you feel guilt, you don't love yourself, and so don't love others." She could almost feel his smile. "Quite a paradox, isn't it?"

There were a number of things she wanted to tell him, but Azula managed to keep them all under her tongue. Though since Pathik could read her mind, it was probably pointless anyway. "So what's the solution?"

"Paradoxes don't have solutions, Avatar. That's precisely why they're paradoxes. The ordinary person must simply muddle through as best he can. But you are _not_ an ordinary person, and you cannot afford to do what an ordinary person does. If you wish to open your Chakra, Avatar, you must eliminate your guilt. There is no other way."

"But I _told_ you, I don't—"

"—feel guilt, I know. Which brings us full circle. Our main goal here is to find out why you're so obsessed with thinking of yourself as a monster."

Now _that_ shut Azula up quick.

"I can see you won't tell me anytime soon." Pathik was starting to sound more forceful now, even a little impatient. The fear of him was starting to creep back into Azula's skull. "We cannot move on if we do not deal with this first. Therefore…"

Azula flinched back, but it was too late. He put his finger on her forehead and she sunk into the ocean of memories.

* * *

Azula put her head on her hands, watching the small squirrel-cat Zuko had found. It was a cute little thing, with its long fluffy tail, buck teeth, and triangular ears sticking straight up out of its head.

She pet it absent-mindedly, feeling the soft fur. It was very relaxing. She could understand why people kept them as pets.

It started with a spark. Azula created a small spark while petting the squirrel-cat. It was more curiosity than anything. She just wanted to see what would happen. The shock of the spark startled the squirrel-cat, and it looked about warily, trying to see what caused it that small jolt of pain.

A smile slowly started forming on Azula's lips. _Caused it pain_. She was the one who caused it pain.

Another spark, a bigger one this time. Now the squirrel-cat decided it didn't matter what caused the pain, it just wanted to get away. Not willing to let it run, Azula gripped the small animal strongly with her hand.

Now the squirrel-cat was clearly in distress. It started wildly looking about for some sort of escape, squeaking pathetically.

Azula's smile grew broader. Before she knew it, she started making strange movements with the hand gripping the squirrel-cat.

Slowly but surely, Azula felt her palm getting hotter. Slowly but surely, the squirrel-cat started moving more frantically, started crying more loudly, started scratching more ferociously. In order to keep it under control, Azula had to add her other hand to the mix, gripping the animal's neck and forcing it down.

The squirrel-cat's moments of highest activity were when the smoke started rising from its mouth. That only lasted for a little bit, though. Soon enough, it started moving more sluggishly, as the smoke got thicker and thicker.

Her mother was the one who found her, holding the charred remains of the squirrel-cat, grin still fastened to her face.

It was the first time she ever created fire.

* * *

The conclusion of that vision brought another long bout of silence.

"I see," Pathik eventually said.

Azula didn't respond.

"Thinking you're a horrible person isn't how you feel guilt. It's how you _avoid_ feeling guilt. After all, for a horrible person, things like that are to be expected. But if you were just another human, like everybody else—"

"Yeah, yeah, congratulations, you figured it out. You're really brilliant, and all that."

"It's impossible to eliminate your guilt if you keep running away from it, Avatar. You must face it head-on."

"You know, you're not saying anything I didn't already know."

"But this is interesting," Pathik said, in a tone of mock surprise. "Not only are you afraid that you're a monster, but you also use that fear to avoid confronting your guilt. I understand some call this 'cognitive dissonance.'"

"I'm just a screwed-up ball of contradictions, aren't I?"

Pathik chuckled softly. "Aren't we all?"

Azula made a dismissive sound.

"I only speak the truth, Avatar."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know you do."

"Be that as it may. In time, you may be able to accept your guilt naturally. But, alas, we cannot afford to leave the world absent your presence for that long. Thus, I fear some drastic measures may be required."

"I'm listening."

"Forced empathy. I have the ability to make you directly feel the pain you have inflicted upon others."

Azula gaped.

"I will only do so with your permission. However, it is my opinion that there is no other way."

All the pain she had ever caused…Azula could scarcely even imagine it. She certainly didn't _want_ to.

"Avatar?"

If she could access the Avatar State at will through this…if this was the only way to gain that kind of power… "Fine. Sure. Whatever. Do it."

"Are you certain—"

"I said _do it_. Before I change my mind."

Pathik grunted. And before she changed her mind, he once again put his finger to her forehead.

* * *

_It hurts_

Azula was her mother, suffering in agony for hours to bring her into the world, all that pain compressed into a single second-

_It hurts_

Azula was the squirrel-cat, insides burned to ashes in an inferno of flame, voice croaking out to-

_It hurts_

Azula was her brother, each and every time she had kicked him, each and every time she had burned him, each and every time she had said just the right combination of words to stab a blade into his heart more painful than any sword-

_It hurts_

Azula was her father, kneeling on the ground, feeling his life's work crumble around him, at the hands of his own flesh and blood, the person he had spent so much time and energy teaching everything he knew to-

_It hurts_

Azula was Katara, who had finally found a friend her own age, a friend who hadn't cared that she was the daughter of the Chief, a friend she had done so much for, helping her with no thought for herself, until she learned that she wasn't really a friend after all, learned while writhing on the ground with a searing pain in her chest like none she had never felt, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the-

_It hurts_

Azula was her friends, her only friends when she was Princess, who had to live each and every day in the terror that if they displeased her, if they didn't do exactly what she wanted, they might get beaten, they might get burned, they might die, their family might die, and there was nothing they could do-

_It hurts_

Azula was a Fire Nation soldier, just trying to make enough money to support her family, when she saw the tidal wave, and then she was swept away, and thought about her children, and what would they do without her, and I don't want to die-

_It hurts!_

And all the pain was flowing together, and she didn't know who she was anymore, the pain was so great it blocked out everything else, time, space, everything-

_Avatar!_

It was Pathik's voice.

_Avatar! Keep a hold of yourself! Remember who you are!_

She couldn't remember, she didn't want to remember, she didn't want to be the person who caused all this-

_You must know who you are! If you lose yourself, it all becomes meaningless!_

Meaning, identity, who cares about that kind of stuff, it doesn't matter to the pain-

_You are responsible for this pain. It is your fault. As the Avatar, you must accept that._

Her fault…all of it…

_If you want to blame yourself, do so. If you want to hate yourself, do so. You have that right. But you cannot lie to yourself._

I…don't want to…

_It…hurts…_

* * *

Slowly, Azula awoke out of the sea of pain. She was still lying on the stone pillar, the waterfall still bellowing its endless roar. Her back was sore, but she didn't sit up.

"How are you feeling, Avatar?" Pathik asked. He did honestly sound concerned.

"I don't know," she said stupidly.

"From what I can see, you have opened your second Chakra."

Azula scratched at an eye socket.

"If I may ask, what method did you find to accept your guilt and move past it?"

Azula sat up, groaning as her joints creaked against each other. "I understood that no matter how bad I felt, I can't change the past, only the future. I realized I didn't want to wallow in self-pity and self-hatred forever. Something." She grinned. "You know, maybe I was right the first time. Maybe I just naturally don't feel much guilt in the first place."

There was a short pause, then Pathik started laughing. After a second, Azula joined in.

"I must admit, Avatar, you are much different from anyone else I've ever known."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"Come. We must head to the site where we will open the third Chakra."

"Remind me again, why does it matter _where_ we open each Chakra?"

Pathik adopted his lecturing tone. Azula could almost picture him wagging a finger at her. If she knew what he looked like. "As you should know already, location is very important in spiritual matters."

Not for the first time, and almost certainly not for the last, Azula sighed.

Bastard.

* * *

**End of Chapter 10**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Deepest apologies for the time delay on this chapter. I had a bunch of real life matters to attend to. Me having a tough time figuring out how I should tackle this chapter certainly didn't help, of course. But in the end, I managed to finish it, and hopefully it isn't terrible. I'll try my upmost to not have the next one take as long.

The "walking outside and seeing an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a wandering monk" thing is taken from Buddhism—supposedly, Siddhartha Gautama did the same before he became the Buddha. Azula, naturally, put her own personal spin on it.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	11. The Tales of Ba Sing Se

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 10.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

"Look, Joo Dee. I'd _love_ to have you follow me around and observe me for a month, don't get me wrong, but we are kind of on a deadline. So here's the deal: You lead me to your boss, and I don't crush you like a grape."

Azula saw the woman's struggles vibrate down through the giant stone fist gripping her.

"I'm not exactly a patient person, Joo Dee."

* * *

**Chapter 11**

**The Tales of Ba Sing Se**

* * *

After a surprisingly productive conversation with Long Feng, Azula managed to get him to put the full weight of the Earth Kingdom's military behind an assault on the Fire Nation. She just had to agree not to let the city's citizen's know anything about the war. And put her full support behind him gaining full dominion over the city. And promise to get as much money as possible from the Fire Nation after the war's end.

Well, as long as she had a working relationship with them, one ruler was as good as another. And "as much as possible" was a rather flexible concept.

In any event, three of the four main anti-Fire Nation forces were now allied, more or less. The Southern Water Tribe, Omashu, and Ba Sing Se were prepared to launch an invasion together. Only the Northern Water Tribe remained.

Azula wanted to head out immediately, but the others convinced her that, since they were ahead of schedule anyway, they should spend a day in Ba Sing Se to renew their spirits and explore the city. Well, technically, they all refused to set one foot outside of the walls no matter how much Azula threatened them, but Azula decided to consider giving in as a magnanimous gesture.

It was, after all, only for one day.

* * *

**The Tale of Sokka (part 1)**

* * *

Sokka strutted the streets of Ba Sing Se, chest out, head held high.

He had first joined Azula out of a desire to see the world. But for the most part, they were too busy dashing from one place to another for him to be able to sit back and take in the view. Plus, they spent most of their time camping out, and after a while, each grass-covered hill started looking a lot like the last grass-covered hill.

The fact that he was the weakest member of the party in combat didn't exactly help matters.

But now! Now they were in Ba Sing Se, the largest city in the world! Sokka was finally back in his element. He was going to take advantage of this opportunity to finally have a solo adventure. And maybe meet a few girls while he was at it.

As if in response to his thought, Sokka rounded a corner and immediately saw a gaggle of high-class Ba Sing Se girls, talking to each other and giggling. Figuring that in such a big group, there was a good chance at least one of them was interested in him, Sokka put on a confident air and swaggered over to them.

"Hey, ladies. I saw you looking at me." This caused the girls to giggle even louder. Taking that to be a good sign, Sokka went on. "I know I must be very…_exotic_," he intoned, slicking his hair back, "so what say we go somewhere so I can tell you about…where I'm from?"

"Sorry, but I'm not interested in hearing about swamps," one of them said, and they all broke out into raucous laughter. Before he could respond, they barreled past him. Sokka could hear whispers of "Did you see the way he's _dressed_?" and "They let _anyone_ into the Upper Ring these days, don't they?"

Sokka stood in the middle of the street for a few seconds afterward before slapping himself on the cheek. He was just unlucky, that's all. In fact, now that he'd used up his poor luck for the day, the rest of his adventure should go great!

For the next few hours, he found himself, in succession: booed by spectators when he tried performing with his boomerang, getting food poisoning from a meal he had never heard of but ordered "to see what it was like," chased by a man for accidentally stumbling onto his property while exploring, and turned down by more girls than he could count (with varying degrees of politeness).

Needless to say, the experience was somewhat damaging to his natural sense of optimism.

By the end of the afternoon, Sokka had somehow wandered into the Lower Ring. Tired but not hungry, he entered a tea shop he saw out of the corner of his eye and ordered a cup.

In the middle of drinking what he felt was rather bland tea, he heard a voice next to him say, "Well, you look rather ragged."

A rather pretty Earth Kingdom girl was now sitting next to him, with pigtails, green eyes, and some fairly large…other features. She was smiling.

Sokka pinched himself in the arm and yelped in pain. However, instead of disappearing like an illusion should, the girl merely giggled and pointed at his cup of half-finished tea. "If you're looking for refreshment, there are few worse options than Pao's tea, you know."

He looked at his cup, pushing it around a little with his fingers, still not quite believing what was happening. "Yeah, well, I'm not exactly an expert on tea anyway."

"You certainly sound like a barrel of sunshine."

Sokka sighed. "Sorry. I've just had a bad day."

He glanced at the girl out of the corner of his eye. She had her elbow on the table and was resting her head on her palm, looking at him inquisitively. "Mm," she said, "I've had those." She started tapping her fingers on the table. For some reason, Sokka's throat suddenly became dry, and he downed the rest of the tea in one gulp. The girl giggled. "Finished?"

Sokka wiped the tea's remains from his mouth. "Yeah. I guess."

"Want to hang out with me for a bit?"

In his mind, Sokka saw himself smile suavely, say "But of course, my lady" in a silvery voice, and lead her out of the building holding hands. In reality, Sokka stuttered for a bit before saying "Sure" in a nervous voice.

The girl giggled again. "Let's go, then." She stood up, then as a seeming afterthought, gave him a short bow. "Name's Jin, by the way."

Sokka matched the bow awkwardly. "Sokka."

* * *

**The Tale of Kalu**

* * *

Kalu was curious about what Earth Kingdom medicine was like. So early in the morning, he strolled to the Ba Sing Se Hospital.

And strolled out a few minutes later, fighting back the urge to vomit. There were hoards of people in there, groaning in pain, the bandages wrapped around them failing to stop the leakage of blood. Some of them were missing arms, some legs. When he finally saw a doctor, the man was closing an open wound by _burning_ it shut. Kalu had had no idea that doctoring without waterbending was so…so _barbaric_.

So the hospital was out, and he was left standing in the middle of a street in the Middle Ring, having no idea what to do next.

He shrugged. He was on vacation—there wasn't anything in particular he _had_ to do. Smiling, he set off in a random direction, lazily taking in the city's sights.

He was jolted out of his daydreaming by a man who roughly shoved him aside, almost causing Kalu to fall over. Annoyed, he opened his mouth to berate the man when he heard a woman shout, "Someone stop him! He stole my bag!"

Kalu looked around. This was a small street, and no one else was around.

He sighed, casually drew his knife, then tossed it at the shrinking figure. The man was over twenty feet away, but he was stupidly running in a straight line, so it was child's play to hit him.

Kalu didn't enjoy hearing the scream of pain, but he didn't _not_ enjoy it, either.

Humming to himself, Kalu casually strode over to the thief, who still hadn't recovered from the shock of receiving a knife to the back. He was trying to stand up when Kalu reached him.

"You…you could've killed me!" he gasped.

Kalu made a dismissive noise. "Only if I had hit you in the throat. And that was very unlikely." Putting his foot on the thief's back, he pulled the knife out with a _squelch_, causing another scream of pain. "Oh, calm down. It's not even deep." While he waterbent some liquid into the thief's wound with one hand, his other withdrew the woman's purse from the man's grip.

"Thank you so much, sir!" Kalu looked behind him and saw the woman from before, her face filled with gratitude. "How can I ever repay you?"

Hmm…she was blushing now, and not meeting his eyes. Not just gratitude, then. She clearly had a preferred repayment method in mind already.

With a sly smile, he reached into her bag and pulled out a couple of silver coins. "This is my usual fee for treating a battle wound. It should be sufficient."

The woman, clearly confused, merely nodded. Kalu gave her a perfect bow, stuck the coins into his pocket, finished healing the thief's wound, and strolled away while humming to himself again.

After a few seconds, in the tone of an afterthought, he called out over his shoulder, "You should probably deliver that man to the proper authorities."

* * *

**The Tale of Naya**

* * *

Naya sighed as she lay back in her tub, savoring the cold water. Not for the first time, her thoughts drifted to the South Pole.

Her husband, like most men in Hakoda's tribe, was out scouting most of the year. Her son, now ten years old, had shown a talent for waterbending at an early age and so spent most of his time with the other apprentices. Because of that, when she received her duty to train the Avatar and escort her around the world, she assumed it wouldn't be so bad to be away from her family.

She was wrong. Being on a different continent was completely different. It wasn't just that she had even less chance to see them—if something happened to either of them, she wouldn't know for months. Even now, they could be injured, or dead.

It was the not knowing that drove her crazy. She was prepared for death; every Southern Water Tribesman was. But she couldn't handle not knowing.

That wasn't even the worst of it. The worst was the fact that she left the only country she had ever known, the only people she had ever known, and was now stuck traipsing around foreign lands where the only people she knew, she hated.

Naya was a waterbender of the South. She would fulfill her duty. Even if she hated it every step of the way.

She internally smacked herself when she left the baths. Today was supposed to be a day of relaxation, not a day to remember all the things she hated about her life. Without knowing exactly what to do, Naya walked the streets of the Upper Ring randomly, hoping something would catch her eye.

And something did, of a sort. A child's wails reached her ears, and curious, Naya followed the sound. They belonged to a girl who looked no older than seven, bawling in the middle of the street. The other Earth Kingdom citizens weren't even looking at her as they passed by.

Annoyed, she grabbed the arm of the man closest to her. "Why is everyone ignoring that child?"

The man looked at Naya like she was crazy. "Let sleeping lion-dogs lie, lady. That goes for both you and the kid." He yanked his arm out of her grasp and continued walking.

Naya spared him a brief glance of disdain, then looked back at the girl. She frowned. In the South, a young child wouldn't just be ignored like this. Then again, in the South, everyone knew everyone else.

Cautiously, she approached the girl and put an arm on her shoulder. "Hello. Are you lost?"

The girl just wailed some more, not looking at her.

Naya frowned some more. She wasn't good with kids. As was customary in the South, her own son had been raised by his grandparents while she and her husband were off protecting the tribe. She had never really learned the best way to interact with children.

"Um…where do you live?"

If anything, the girl started crying even louder. And people were staring at them now.

Naya felt a sudden urge to smack the child, but fought it down. That would not be appropriate to do with a stranger. She tried to figure out how to make the girl shut up and listen to her, but her mind was coming up with nothing.

Finally, she resorted to the only thing she could think of, and bent some water into the girl's face.

That, at least, got her attention.

"Did you get separated from your parents?"

Tears falling, adding to the water already on her face, the girl nodded. "I can't find my mommy."

Naya nodded. She had assumed as much. "Well, why don't you tell me where your house is?"

The girl shook her head so quickly her hair whipped back and forth. "She won't be there."

Naya blinked. "Okay…where would she be?"

The girl reached into her pocket and fished out a piece of paper, worn and smudged from use. Squinting, Naya could barely make out the address written on it.

She led the girl, Hua, who turned out to be six years old, to the nearest guard outpost. Along the way, the girl explained, through her tears, that her mother had told her to meet at that address, but she got lost along the way and couldn't figure out where to go. Naya thought it was strange that a parent would let their small child walk such a big city alone, but maybe that was one of the facets of parenting she'd never learned.

When she arrived at the outpost, she showed the guard there the badge Long Feng had given all of them after his negotiation with the Avatar. The badge not only functioned as a pass to give them free reign of the city, but it also helped convince people in the city to do what you wanted. Nobody wanted to displease a person under the favor of Long Feng.

When the guard read the address, he looked at the two of them oddly, but gave them easy-to-follow directions, and soon they were off.

Talking to Hua was an interesting experience. The girl could have thoughts and carry on a decent conversation, but her opinions and worldview were almost incomprehensible to Naya. For example, despite being miserable to the point of shutting out the world just a few minutes ago, now she was animatedly discussing her dolls and other playthings with a woman she had just met.

It made Naya a little jealous, to be honest. Hua seemed to live solely in the present, while she spent so much of her time in the past.

Eventually, they reached the end of the guard's instructions. But when they turned the corner and got a view of the destination, Naya was shocked at what she saw.

_Ba Sing Se_

_Upper Ring Cemetery_

Naya gaped. She looked at Hua, who suddenly had a very determined expression on her little face as she deliberately walked to the cemetery's gate. The man there waved her in as soon as he saw her, and hesitated when Naya fumbled in her robes and pulled out her pass, until Hua said "Let her in too, please."

Once inside, Naya followed Hua past the rows of headstones, the little girl looking at each one before moving on. Naya had known Earth Kingdom citizens buried their dead, but this was the first time she had seen the results. Looking at the simple stone tablets, knowing each of them represented the corpse of someone beloved, was a strange feeling.

Eventually, Hua stopped at a stone and knelt down in front of it. Naya looked at its inscription. All it had was a name: _Lian Zhang_.

The two of them stayed like that for a while, Hua kneeling, Naya standing. It wasn't until the sun started retreating into the western mountains that Hua finally rose to her feet.

Naya put an arm around the girl's shoulder. She didn't resist, and they walked out of the cemetery together.

"Where do you live?" Naya asked.

"With my uncle."

"Shall I take you to his house?"

Hua nodded.

As they walked home in silence, Naya kept her face impassive. But her thoughts were a blizzard.

As a Southern Water Tribesman, she was prepared for death. Her own father had died when she was young, though not as young as Hua. Death might be tragic, but it was also inevitable—Naya had never seen the need to mourn for it.

And yet, at that point in time, she would have given almost anything to give Hua's mother back to her.

At the door to her uncle's house, Naya and Hua hugged and said goodbye. She watched the girl close the door with an odd mixture of emotions.

She never did learn why Hua's parents died.

* * *

**The Tale of Toph**

* * *

Toph hated Ba Sing Se. All the rules and regulations and boundaries made her feel like she was back at her parents' house.

Luckily, Long Feng's pass let her enter the Middle and Lower Rings, where people understood Toph's philosophy: I don't bother you, you don't bother me.

Of course, being a young blind girl wearing expensive-looking clothes walking alone did attract the _good_ kind of attention. People attempted to rob her no less than three times that morning. Needless to say, she made them regret it.

More interesting was what happened early in the afternoon. She was walking down a side alley, taking in all the vibrations and noises from the city, when a group of children ran up and surrounded her.

"What's this?" she asked, a smile on her face. "You guys want a fight?"

"That depends on how you answer us," one of them said smugly.

His attitude almost made her upend the lot of them, but she would rather trade some trash-talk first. "Well then, what are you waiting for? Ask your questions."

The same boy, evidently their leader, spoke again. "Are you the one who's been going around beating up thieves with earthbending?"

"Word travels around fast in this town," Toph replied.

"Want to give us a demonstration?"

Toph stomped, and a huge section of ground behind her rose up to the 'ooh's and 'aah's of the kids. It was a rather basic move, but it looked impressive.

Evidently not to the leader, though, because he made a scoffing sound. "Any idiot with brute strength can do something like that."

Toph raised an eyebrow. With another stomp, she sent the mass of rock crashing to the ground. Then, silently, she stuck her hand into the ground beneath her and raised it up, taking a mound of earth with it. Very deliberately, she made motions with her other hand, forming the earth into the shape of a clenched fist. As a finishing touch, she even made the rock-hand open and close.

"If you know about earthbending," she said, "you should know how difficult _that_ trick is."

When the leader boy spoke next, he made a lot of effort to sound calm, but Toph could easily detect a strong undercurrent of admiration. "Not bad, I suppose."

Toph sneered, then replaced the earth, bending it into the shape that fit the hole. "So what do you want with me, then?"

"My name's Peng," the boy replied. "My gang got into a fight with our rivals a few days ago, and…we kind of lost. We want to hire you so we can get revenge."

Toph tilted her head. "So what's in it for me?"

"We can pay you three—"

Toph laughed. "I have more than enough money, trust me. Try again."

That seemed to throw Peng off, but to his credit, he recovered quickly. "You're new here, right? We'll take you in."

She considered telling him she was going to leave tomorrow, but decided against it. "Sorry, not interested."

"Come on!" Peng was sounding desperate now. "You've gotta want _something_!"

Toph made a show of thinking deeply, then shrugged. "Whatever. I'm always up for a fight."

She couldn't suppress a smile at the cheers that remark got.

It didn't take long for them to reach the hideout of Peng's rival gang. "We're here to get revenge for last time, Ping!" he shouted.

It didn't take long for a bunch of kids to file out of the small building. One of them, presumably Ping, stepped forward. "What makes you think this'll end any different?" Ping said. From his voice, Toph guessed he was a few years older than Peng.

"We've got a secret weapon this time!" Peng stated triumphantly. Feet scuffled, and Toph could tell from the vibrations that everyone was facing her.

Ping laughed. "So you ran to get help from a girl, Peng? What're you gonna do next, cry to our mother?"

"You shut up!" Peng shouted, sounding quite embarrassed. Toph was enjoying the back-and-forth, until she realized Ping had used an odd word choice. _Our_ mother?

"Aww, what's the matter? Why don't you go run behind the skirts of your protector, baby brother?" All the kids in Ping's gang laughed, while the kids in Peng's gang hurled insults. Toph herself, on the other hand, was frowning, deep in thought.

"I'll make you eat those words!" Peng finally said. "Go get them, earthbender! We've got your back!"

Toph sighed. "You guys are all idiots." With a stomp and a hand motion, she created a wave in the earth around her and spread it out in all directions, sending everyone else flying.

Except, to her surprise, it wasn't everyone. The underlings fell into a heap, but both Peng and Ping were unaffected. They had stopped the rock wave before it reached them.

They were earthbenders.

_Now this is getting interesting_. A plan soon formed in Toph's mind.

"Hey! Why'd you attack us, too!" Peng sounded betrayed. Which, to be fair, he was.

"I'm going to make you pay for messing with my gang, girl." Ping just sounded angry.

Toph smiled broadly. "Let's get this party started, then."

Both boys drew up masses of stone and sent them flying at her, again and again. Each time, she deflected them with a dismissive gesture. Several times, she tried to knock them off their feet by shifting the ground from under them, but they managed to keep their balance.

"So you're aware of the first rule of earthbending," she mused aloud. "Always keep your feet on the ground."

"You know," Ping said, "that arrogant attitude of yours is really starting to piss me off." Peng just grunted. Their underlings were starting to stand up now, but none of them dared to interfere in the benders' fight.

The two brothers started stepping up and varying their attacks. As Ping sent a rock at her head, Peng tried to encase her feet in stone. As Peng fired volleys at her, Ping encased his arms in earth and rushed at her. Toph was still able to counter their moves, but now she was actually having to exert some effort.

As the boys stepped up their attacks even more, Toph was tempted to give up her plan. After all, she had no reason to care about these guys. But whether it was stubbornness or something else, she stuck to it.

Finally, her moment came. The two brothers combined their efforts to raise a giant stone slab out of the ground, and sent it hurtling toward her at high speed. Toph planted her feet and punched the slab with both fists, causing it to explode, while at the same time bending the ground she was standing on, sending her flying backward. She gave a nice, loud scream for good measure.

Cautiously, the other kids started to gather around her prone body. After half a minute passed and she didn't move, however, they seemed to consider the fight won, and started cheering.

Toph gave it a suitable length of time, then stood up slowly.

"Don't feel so tough now, do you, girl?" Ping said smugly.

"That's what you get when you mess with us!" Peng added.

A smile flickered across Toph's lips at that last word, but she quickly suppressed it. "Don't get too cocky, boys. I would've won if it had been one-on-one."

After saying that, she was slightly concerned she was laying it on a bit too thick, but it turned out she needn't have worried. "Sorry, girl," Ping said, "but the only one who gets to mess with my little brother is me. You fight with him, you fight with me too."

"And the loser doesn't get to make excuses," Peng said.

Toph sighed, long and melodramatically. "I suppose you're right."

"You bet we are!"

"Now get out of our territory!"

Toph did her best to look tired and defeated as she walked away, to jeers and insults from all the other kids.

As she thought, the best way to make up was to fight alongside each other. Her plan went off without a hitch—even Azula would've been proud. Maybe.

Toph smiled. _Doing stuff like this sometimes is okay, too._

* * *

**The Tale of Sokka (part 2)**

* * *

After telling Jin he was a new arrival—not technically a lie, even though he did lead her to believe he was a refugee like her—she offered to give Sokka a tour of the Lower Ring. While he wasn't particularly intrigued by that prospect at first, he had to admit that the seedy underbelly of Ba Sing Se did take on a new look through Jin's eyes. As she excitedly pointed out the good and bad restaurants and bars, the store not-so-secretly controlled by a criminal gang, the empty lots kids gathered at to play makeshift games, and countless other ordinary places, the slums and decrepit buildings started to attain an odd sort of dignity. It might be a dirty, broken-down armpit of the city, but to countless numbers of people, it was home.

As the two of them were lounging on a park bench, exchanging stories about their respective journeys to Ba Sing Se (Sokka, again, only lying by omission), an angry voice suddenly interrupted them. "Jin! What are you doing!"

Sokka looked at her in confusion. Jin's face was contorted into a grimace. "My boyfriend," she muttered.

"You have a boyfriend!"

They didn't have the chance to say anything else before the boyfriend in question approached them. He didn't look significantly older than Sokka, but he was much bigger—at least a head taller, and far more muscular. Sokka gulped involuntarily.

"What are you doing, Jin?" the boyfriend repeated, in a voice that was less loud yet, somehow, even angrier.

"None of your business, Chen," she said through gritted teeth.

"Are you saying it's none of my business that my girlfriend is hanging around another man!"

"Hey!" Sokka said, rising to his feet, "if the lady says it's not your business, it's not your business."

Chen turned toward him now, and Sokka involuntary shrank back a bit at the larger boy's rage-filled face. "You shut up," Chen growled. "I'll deal with you later."

"You won't be _dealing with_ anyone, Chen!" Jin was standing up now, too, and she sounded as angry as her boyfriend.

Chen turned back to her. "I went to your place hours ago, but your parents told me you had gone out to get a quick cup of tea. I wait for a half hour, go out looking for you, and find you running around with some village boy!"

"Who are you calling a village boy!" Sokka shouted, but he was ignored by the other two.

"So you were the one waiting this time, Chen? How'd it feel?"

"Don't you change the subject here."

"That is _exactly_ the subject! The only time you ever show you care about me is when you're pissed off at someone else for coming near me!"

"So now it's bad for me to be worried about other guys hitting on my girlfriend?"

"You don't treat me like a girlfriend, you treat me like your favorite shirt!"

Sokka became increasingly uncomfortable as their argument went on, each listing in great detail what they found objectionable about the other. He was about to back away slowly when Chen grabbed Jin's wrist roughly.

"Come on, Jin, we're leaving."

"Let go of me."

"I _said_, we're leaving."

"And I said, let go—"

"You shut up!" Chen turned around, and while Sokka didn't know what he was about to do, he didn't intend to find out. He tackled the other boy and pinned him to the ground.

"You stay out of this, village boy!" Chen roared, shoving Sokka off of him. Sokka slid a few feet before stopping himself, pulling out his boomerang—and receiving a foot in the chest, sending him crashing into the remains of a building.

_Idiot_, Sokka thought hazily, _should've used the boomerang first instead of tackling him…_ Sokka had ignored his father's first rule of combat, remain calm at all times, and was paying for it now. His stomach burned—Chen had kicked him hard—and the rest of his body was severely aching from the violent impact.

As the world started coming into focus again, Chen was advancing on him, cracking his knuckles. Sokka hastily searched for his boomerang, only to see it lying on the ground where Chen had kicked him.

He hadn't even been able to keep hold of his weapon.

_I really am a failure._

But before Chen could reach him, Jin stepped in between the two of them, arms outstretched.

"What are you doing, Jin?" Chen asked.

"You've done enough, Chen. Now leave him alone."

"Or what?"

"You know who some of my father's friends are," Jin said, her tone more serious than Sokka had ever heard from her.

Chen gaped. "You'd go that far to protect this—"

"Leave. Him. Alone."

Chen looked completely disgusted. "Fine. Have it your way. We're through. And remember, girl, I know some people too. If I were you, I'd watch my back from now on." With that, he turned around and walked away.

Soon after he was out of sight, Jin rushed over and helped Sokka stand up. He was chagrined at needing the assistance of a girl, much less a girl that had just saved his ass, but he bowed to necessity. "How do you feel?" she asked, worry in her voice.

Sokka chuckled meekly. "What do you think?"

Jin lowered her eyes. "Sorry."

He felt bad. "No, sorry, it's ok. I feel like crap, but I've had worse. I'll be better in no time."

That, at least, caused a small smile to appear on Jin's face. Sokka felt a bit better.

"What about you?" he asked. "Is Chen really going to—"

Jin smiled wider, and shook her head. "I don't think so. He was just upset. He's normally a pretty decent guy, you know, it's just…" She sighed. "Nowadays, we just bring out the worst in each other, I guess."

Sokka didn't really understand, but he nodded anyway.

"I guess I should take you home. Where do you live?"

Sokka tried to prevent his growing panic from showing on his face. If he told her he lived in the Upper Ring, she'd know he wasn't really a refugee. "I think I can get back by myself, thanks."

"It's really no big deal—"

"I said I'll be fine!" That came out much harsher than he had intended, but he couldn't take it back now. That didn't stop his stomach from sinking into his shoes when he saw Jin's expression.

"Fine, then," she said emotionlessly. "I guess I'll head home."

_It's easier this way_, Sokka told himself as she turned around and walked away. _I mean, I just met her today, and by chance at that. All I have to do is stay silent, and it'll be easier for…_

"Wait!" he called out right before she turned the corner.

Jin stopped, but didn't respond or turn around.

"I'm sorry," Sokka said. "I'd really appreciate it if you could help me get home."

She didn't do anything for a few seconds. But, eventually, she turned back around and nodded.

Jin half-supported him as they walked. The only time either of them spoke was when Sokka gave one or two-word directions. However, she became increasingly confused as he led them closer and closer to the gate separating the Lower and Middle Rings.

Finally, when it became clear they were heading for the gate, Jin said something. "Where are we going?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"To the gate."

"But—" She was cut off when Sokka began fishing in his clothing, before pulling out the pass Long Feng had given them. When she saw it, Jin's eyes grew wide.

When he saw the pass, the guard at the gate nodded and earthbent it open. He technically wasn't supposed to let Jin in too, but he didn't say anything when they both passed through the opening. Another benefit of Long Feng's pass: nobody who saw it wanted to upset you.

As the two of them walked through the Middle Ring, Sokka became able to walk without any support, and gave Jin a short account of his unabridged journey to the city. Even sticking only to the essentials, and leaving out matters of sensitive military importance, they were in the Upper Ring and almost at his house before Sokka finished.

Jin shook her head in amazement. "A Water Tribe colleague of the Avatar…"

Sokka nodded, unsure of what to say.

Suddenly, though, her face brightened and she grinned. "I thought you were a little too dark for it to be just a tan. And I'd never seen anyone with blue eyes before."

They laughed the remainder of the way to his house.

At the doorway, they stopped and looked at each other.

"So…this is it for tonight, huh?" Jin asked, nervously.

Sokka nodded.

"Um, how will I get back to the Lower Ring?"

Sokka internally smacked himself. He hadn't thought of that. "I guess Kalu can take you," he said after a few seconds of frantic thought. "He should…understand."

Jin looked like she wanted to say something, but didn't know what. Or maybe that was Sokka himself. Either way, they looked at each other for a moment, then he turned to put a hand on the door.

"Um," she said.

Sokka paused.

"So…how long will you be in Ba Sing Se?"

"…I leave tomorrow."

"…Oh."

"Yeah."

They looked at each other again. Sokka knew there was something he should be doing right now. But he was tired, and injured.

And he didn't want to become attached to a girl he probably wouldn't ever see again.

"Thanks for helping me get home," he said awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it," she said, equally awkwardly.

"…See you."

Without looking back, he opened the door and entered his house.

Sokka was already asleep when Kalu returned from escorting Jin back to the Lower Ring. But for the next month, not a day went by that he didn't make fun of Sokka for not taking an opportunity when it was gift-wrapped for him.

* * *

**The Tale of Azula**

* * *

Azula spent the day practicing her bending.

* * *

**End Chapter 11**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Poor Jin. It seems it's her fate to be a girl-of-the-week for various main characters. But maybe she should look on the bright side: at least it wasn't Azula.

This was a fun chapter to write. I hope it was even more fun to read!


	12. The Art of Compromise

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 11.

**Timeline Note: **This chapter takes place approximately 15 years after the death of Ozai.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 12**

**The Art of Compromise**

* * *

So. The Southern Water Tribes.

Centuries ago, the North united and so became able to put its thumb upon the wheel of global politics. The South never got that far. Whenever it started to look like a Chieftain was about to gain the power necessary to make everyone else bow their heads, some arrogant underling managed to start a civil war and break off. Hakoda's tribe didn't even have a tenth of the South's total population, and already there were grumblings.

If Hatsuna had had enough time, she might have been able to mold a proper country out of the region. Even with only four years, the last water Avatar had managed to ally the warring tribes together against the Fire Nation for the next century. But with the War over and peace returned, they remembered that they actually hated each other.

If the War had left the South unchanged, there probably wouldn't have been any major issues. If Aang was to be believed, the tribes were generally small enough, and their conflicts petty enough, that Avatars rarely felt the need to intervene. But Hatsuna hadn't just allied the tribes together; she had fashioned them into guerrilla armies, with everyone of fighting age, male and female, able to hold a spear or wield a water whip. The conflicts weren't petty anymore.

The first war after Ozai's death was between two tribes in the depths of the Pole, with barely fifty members each. Food was scarce, and they disagreed about who had the rights to some prime hunting territory. A century ago, it might have ended with two dead, five wounded, and a steady peace. This time, the only reason anyone even knew about the conflict was because a larger tribe investigated to see what had happened to their trading partners.

There had been four months of brutal guerrilla warfare. The loser was completely wiped out. Among the winners there were maybe ten survivors, most either very old or very young.

That was only the first; more soon followed. Worse, the tribes' reaction was to start setting up networks of alliances with each other—networks that quickly became so convoluted and impenetrable that more than half of them almost certainly owed contradictory allegiances. The South soon found itself balanced on a huge pile of kindling, with even the smallest spark threatening to set the entire region ablaze.

Even worse than that, there wasn't much Azula could do. She was not exactly a political novice, but the sheer number of tribes and bonds of friendship and hatred made it impossible for _anyone_ to comprehend more than a sliver of what was going on. The South concealed a hundred worlds of intrigue beneath its blizzards, and Azula couldn't spend a lifetime learning them when she had the rest of the planet to worry about as well.

Luckily, despite being barbarians, the southerners were not stupid. They knew how devastating a huge war would be to them. While minor conflicts were almost incessant, a major one hadn't occurred as of yet. But Azula was not foolish enough to believe that the current situation could continue forever. Something would have to give.

Those were the topics she discussed with Katara the day the other woman ascended as Chieftain of the Blizzard's Shadow Tribe following her father's death (some sort of illness, apparently).

"So what would you have me do then, Avatar?" Katara asked evenly after she finished.

Azula knew the new Chieftain would not like what she was about to hear. "There are too many old grievances, too many new conflicts. A fragile peace must break. There will be war, one way or the other. The only questions are how extensive it will be and what results we can draw from it."

"You have yet to answer my question."

Azula dropped her voice to a whisper that she still made reverberate throughout the igloo. "The South can no longer contain hundreds of competing tribes. You've become too adept at war. You have only two options." She brought her hand forward, palm open, then clenched it into a fist. "Unite, or die."

* * *

The Earth Kingdom presented a different pit of worm-beetles.

The first thing any serious student of Earth Kingdom politics had to learn was that "the Earth Kingdom" existed in name only. Ba Sing Se might technically have held sovereignty over the entire continent, but in practice, the Earth King's authority over areas outside his city's walls was tenuous at best. Everyone else was under the thumb of a local lord, more or less.

This wasn't surprising if you knew the history. The Earth Kingdom was _huge_, after all, and over time its different areas had developed completely distinct cultures. Before the War, the average resident of Omashu hated Gaoling and Ba Sing Se more than she hated the Fire Nation, and the feeling was mutual on all sides. Gaoling had revolted fifty years before the War. Chin revolted and took over almost the entire continent (temporarily) around 230 years ago. And Omashu was even allowed to have its own King.

If the Earth Kingdom had been half as united as the Fire Nation, they would have likely beaten back the invasion with ease.

Be that as it may, after the War, Long Feng and his Dai Li had managed to keep the other territories in line, using methods Azula studiously avoided looking at. Unfortunately, these methods cost money, lots of money, especially since the general perception was that Ba Sing Se's response to the invasion had been to say "Best of luck!" and lock itself up inside its walls. Of course, Azula only fully realized this when her new flunky of a Grand Secretariat drastically slashed taxes to make the peasants happy, thus defunding the methods of control, thus witnessing a millennia's worth of resentment flare up at once.

She had forgotten that while Long Feng may have been an asshole, he _did_ know his business.

* * *

And then there was the Fire Nation.

Ichiro was dead, and his Sons of the Phoenix with him. That eliminated the biggest threat to Zuko's rule. But Ichiro hadn't been the only member of the military displeased with the new Firelord, just the only one with the courage to follow his convictions.

Technically, the Firelord was supreme ruler. Technically, anyone who disobeyed an order would end up with their head rolling on the ground. In reality, there are innumerable ways to screw over your commander without actually disobeying them, and Zuko's soldiers were learning every single one.

This was a huge issue for many reasons, but the biggest was that the Fire Nation military was also the Fire Nation police force. With war reparations leeching the country's wealth, leaving more Fire Nation citizens in poverty than ever before, lack of proper law enforcement was destructive. Crime was going up with no end in sight.

So that was bad. Bad enough to threaten the precarious balance Azula, Zuko, and Mai had given the Fire Nation. But that wasn't the end of it—not even close.

The next problem was the nobility. When Firelord Himiko of the White Flame bound the Fire States together to create one nation, the old Lords and Princes demanded some share of power as a price for their obedience. While more than half their lines were now gone (though most new nobility claimed to be descendants of some distant relative of an old noble clan), the system they had set up remained. Nobles ran the gamut from rich to poor, smart to slow, and influential to laughingstocks, but they all agreed on one thing: they deserved more money and more power. The war had given them both, and then Zuko had taken them away.

And even _that_ did not cover the full extent of the problem. There was still the Fire Sages. Sozin had forcibly taken away the power they still held and confined them to their island, a practice Azulon and Ozai maintained. Zuko, naturally, ended it and put them back in their traditional position as the Fire Nation's religious authority. But they had not lost their taste for conquest and glory, and all her brother got in return for his generosity was yet another powerful group that detested his reconciliatory policies.

So, to summarize: the three main non-imperial centers of power all hated Zuko and would like nothing better than to see a sword through his guts.

Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant of situations.

* * *

Katara sipped her boiled water with a frown on her face.

_Unite or die_, Azula had said, as if it were some kind of grand revelation. Katara had to rely on regular old eyes instead of earth and airbending, but she could see well enough. When she had still been headmaster of her tribeless waterbending school, hardly a week went by without some family member complaining that they didn't want their child associating with someone from a tribe they suddenly decided they hated. She knew very well that the entire South was at each others' throats, just waiting for one of the others to make a wrong move.

But how did she think Katara could possibly _ally_ the tribes together, given that situation?

"How's the water, Chief Katara?"

_The water around here tastes like seal-pigs. _"It's quite bracing, Chief Andor."

Well, this meeting would decide the outcome, one way or another. Andor was Chieftain of the Ice Reavers Tribe, rivals of Katara's tribe since before time forgot. The lists of offenses each tribe could claim were as long as they were embellished (which was heavily). Even during the War, Andor had tried to undercut Katara's father every way he could short of collaboration with the enemy—and, to be fair, Father tended to give as good as he got. However, the Ice Reavers were the second-most numerous tribe in the South, behind Katara's Blizzard's Shadows. Unification depended on the two of them allying together.

Hence this critically important secret meeting.

Andor took a big gulp from his own mug, made from a seal-pig's skull. "I'd like to offer my thanks for teaching my son waterbending," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He had a shaggy beard that stretched down to his chest and a huge scar across his face.

"Baktu is a very hard worker."

Andor laughed heartily at that. "That's one way of putting it. Another way is that he fights like a woman—meaning no offense, Chieftain."

Katara smiled thinly. "None taken." Baktu was a shy boy, but he had confided in her that he had three older sisters, two of them more skilled in waterbending than him. He was the only one who had been sent to Katara's school.

And while Katara had been walking through the tribe's territory disguised, she had noticed that almost everyone living in a permanent residence was a woman or a child. All the ones sent out for hunting and guerrilla duty were men.

Hatsuna had greater impacts on some tribes than on others.

_For unity_, she told herself. _So that more children don't lose their mothers and fathers_. "Apologies, Chieftain, but I am very busy, and I know you must be as well. Could we talk about—"

"Yes, of course," Andor cut her off. "Your messenger told me you had an important political matter to discuss. What of it?"

Katara could feel her blood flowing faster. With practiced effort, she calmed it down. "You know very well the precariousness of the current balance of power, I'm sure."

"We're as balanced as a warmlander on a frozen lake." Andor laughed again. "The Cold Blades and the Shark-Bears are one insult away from open war. The Wind Demons and Night Patrols already are at war, we just can't admit it because if we did we'd have to get involved." He smiled savagely at her. "Right?"

Katara had allied herself with the Night Patrol Tribe, Andor with the Wind Demons. It was one of almost a dozen alliances that would force them into war should the simmering hostilities break out.

"It is as you say," she said evenly.

"I assume you didn't come all the way here just to tell me things a blind fool could see?"

_No use playing coy, it seems_. "I propose a unification."

Well, that surprised him, at least—Andor's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. "Unification? Are you serious?"

"One tribe, one people. It's the only way to avoid war."

Andor looked at her in shock for a few more seconds, then tilted his head back and laughed longer and harder than Katara had heard anyone laugh before. She had no idea if that was a good sign or not.

Finally he stopped, and looked at her with a toothy grin. "Do you know how I got this? _Chieftain_?" He jabbed a thumb at his scar.

Katara blinked, confused at the change of subject, and said "No."

"It's said that no Water Tribesman fought Water Tribesman during the Hundred Years War, but that's a damn lie. Thirty-seven years ago, a particularly nasty blizzard killed most of the game near us, so I led a hunting party into your father's territory. He didn't like that, and attacked us. Four dead, nine wounded, and this scar, courtesy of dear old dad's blade."

Katara's mind was reeling. That was before her time, and she had no idea what to say. All she could do was sit there, listening to Andor rant on.

"I thought you were going to either declare war or propose an alliance. Either way, I was planning on spitting in your face and sending you on your way. But after all you and your family did to us, you want us to forget the past, put on our best smile, and submit to your rule?"

"N-no, the rule would be—"

"_I don't care_!" Andor slammed a huge fist on the ice table in front of them, smashing it and sending shards flying. "I sent my son to your damn school because the Moon decided to grant you skill with waterbending, but don't think I'll stand for this insult. If you wanted to provoke me you damn well succeeded, missy. If it's war you want, then it's war you'll have. We're going to support the Wind Demons in their conflict with everything we've got. Put that into your mouth and chew on it naked."

Katara's hand twitched. Andor wasn't even a waterbender. It would be so easy to suffocate him with the snow under his feet. She could even make it look like an accident. Then his son Baktu, would become Chieftain, and then maybe…

_Azula would do that_, she thought bitterly. But she wasn't Azula. And Andor, Spirits curse him, knew that very well indeed.

"Now get out," he said.

Katara left without another word.

* * *

Haru sighed and put his head in his hands as this meeting, like all the ones before it, collapsed into bickering.

It wasn't that he himself held any particular malice for Ba Sing Se. He hated the Fire Nation. With them finally gone, he frankly couldn't bring himself to care whether some guy he'd never met held notional authority over him. But most everyone else in his village was still bitter that the Earth King had never even tried to save them, and his father had hammered home that a leader has exactly as much power as his underlings are willing to give him.

So here he was at yet another fruitless meeting for disaffected local Earth Kingdom leaders plotting rebellion against the Capital.

"Our village has owned the Weizi River for generations!"

"Because you stole it from us!"

Haru was beginning to wonder if there were any two politicians who _didn't_ hate each other.

After a few more hours of nothing very productive, he trudged back to his camp when he noticed a hooded figure standing outside his tent. "Do I know you?" he asked.

The figure looked up, and in the torchlight he could make out a cloth where their eyes should have been. Haru's breath caught in her throat.

He had never met her before, but everyone in the world would be able to recognize her.

"You're—" The Avatar interrupted him by means of a small stream of fire, which caused him to hiss in pain.

"Keep your voice down," she whispered. "I'd rather no one else knew I was here. That's kind of why I wore this." She gestured at her hooded cloak.

Haru opened his mouth, checked himself, then whispered, "Why are you here?"

"Why don't we discuss that away from prying eyes? So to speak." She pushed open the tent flap.

Haru gulped. He had heard many stories about the Avatar, and one thing they all agreed on was that it was a dangerous prospect to be alone with her. But it would probably be even more dangerous to disobey her. Reluctantly, he slunk into the tent, the Avatar following close behind him.

He was very aware that she could burn him to death in an instant.

"Um, you could sit there," he gestured to the one chair, his voice only cracking a little bit.

"It's okay, I'll stand. This shouldn't take long."

Haru nodded, relieved. He kind of had to sit down himself.

"So," he said slowly after sitting down, "if you're here, then…"

"Yes, I know about your 'secret' rebellion meetings. Pretty much everyone important in the Earth Kingdom knows."

He looked up in shock. "Really? But then—"

"Why aren't they doing anything about it?" The Avatar gave a short, bitter laugh. "My good friend and toady the Grand Secretariat has enough problems with his own city, trust me. If he really wanted to he could probably kill you all, but even a complete idiot can tell that'd just make you guys revolt faster."

Needless to say, Haru's throat became very dry at the words _kill you all_. He belatedly realized he hadn't really known what he was getting into when he first started going to these meetings. "Why are you here, then?"

"Ah, so we get to the main point." The Avatar looked at him. Even while he was sitting, she had to look up—he had grown very tall—but it sure felt like the reverse. "I did a little reconnaissance. Out of all these fools playing at revolution, you're the only one younger than fifty. I'm really tired of dealing with old men, so I feel a change of pace might do me good. Hence, I'm here. Now then," she leaned forward, and Haru got the impression that the world was getting smaller, "why are _you_ here?"

His hands clenched the ends of the chair as his mouth formed some words. "Ba Sing Se didn't do anything for ninety-nine years—"

The Avatar cut him off again; luckily, this time it was with a wave of her hand instead of fire. "I'm not asking for slogans. What I want to know is, why are _you yourself_ here?"

Haru looked down. _You're being stupid_, he admonished himself. If the Avatar had wanted to kill him, she'd have killed him by now. Probably. Anyway, he might as well go ahead and tell the truth. It's not like he was a very good liar. "It's not my choice," he said, his voice very small. "But my people want to revolt."

"And _that's_ the problem." He looked up, and was shocked to see the Avatar leaning against a tent post, looking more like she was discussing the weather than the potential for a mass rebellion. "If it was just a few asshole leaders, the problem could be solved easily enough," she said casually. "But just about the entire Earth Kingdom has decided it wants to revolt _somehow_ and is just arguing about how. I could kill them all, I suppose," she raised a finger, "but that would be rather counterproductive."

Haru just looked on, not sure what to think, as she continued talking. "I could whip up some scheme to scare them all into submission," she said, raising a second finger, "but it's not easy even for me to terrify the entire Earth Kingdom, and anyway that'd only be a stopgap measure. I could give them all enough rice to make them fat and happy," she raised a third finger, "but there probably isn't enough rice in the world for that." She finally looked at him again…well, turned her head in his direction. "Frankly, and trust me when I say it's extremely painful for me to say this, I'm all out of ideas. You wouldn't happen to have any, would you?"

His mouth opened, then closed. It repeated this process a few more times. In the end he just said, "Not as such, no."

"Yeah, I didn't think so." She sighed, though Haru was still too terrified to make out any one particular emotion in it. "I've come to the conclusion that revolt is inevitable. I kind of just want to leave it alone and let you all fight it out yourselves, but you know…Avatar." She sighed again, and stopped talking.

The stones in Haru's brain finally started grinding again. If someone had told him the Avatar would be dropping by for a chat, then even if he believed them, he certainly wouldn't have thought it would turn out like…_this_. He couldn't think of what her goal with this conversation was. But in any event, it seemed like he really should say something…

"Our meetings haven't been very productive," he said, "but people in my village are only getting more and more angry. If we can't figure out an organized way to revolt, we'll probably revolt anyway, just…messily." He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell the Avatar that. But she probably knew it anyway. And wasn't the Avatar's job to ensure peace, or balance, or something?

"If it's a choice between the two, I'd definitely prefer an organized revolt," the Avatar said. "Might as well get it all over with in one go. Why have the meetings gone badly, in your estimation?"

Haru finally managed a smile. "Everyone hates everyone else."

"Of course. The classic problem of organization." The Avatar gave a small grunt as she stood up from her leaning position. "Luckily, this is where we can turn the aforementioned major problem into our advantage."

He blinked. "The aforementioned…?"

"The fact that it's the people who want to revolt, not the leaders." She snapped her fingers a few times. "Come on, keep up. You'll have to be quicker than that if you're going to be my partner in this."

"P-partner?" Haru's mind could barely process the concept.

"Yup. I've got good contacts in Ba Sing Se, Omashu, and Gaoling, so I just need someone involved with all the unimportant people. And as previously mentioned, I'd rather not work with yet another old man. Don't worry, you probably won't die. Now come along." She began walking out of the tent.

Haru stood up, flustered. "Wait, where are we—"

"Time is of the essence. Well, at least for me. You guys aren't my only responsibility. We can ride on my Sky Bison. You don't have anything important here, do you? Of course you don't." She walked out of the tent, and Haru started after her, stopped, fetched his travel sack, and followed her without really thinking about what he was doing.

He really had had _no_ idea what he was getting himself into, agreeing to go to those meetings.

* * *

"This payment will bankrupt us!"

"Then we should stop giving the military everything it wants at twice the price!"

"Do you intend to hand our country to the foreigners on a plush cushion!"

Zuko's eyes itched, but he dared not rub them. Council meetings were like gatherings of tiger-wolves, each looking for any sign of weakness to pounce on. The only reason he didn't have a fang through his throat already was that all of them wanted to make sure _they_ would be sitting on the throne next.

And there was always Mai, sitting next to him, constantly on full alert. She helped Zuko in more ways than she could ever know.

"Times have changed! We can't go against the Avatar; we have to accept the new world order!" That was the Colonial Minister. Naturally, the colonials had the biggest interest in keeping the Earth Kingdom friendly.

"If we have to ask foreigners' permission for everything we do, we might as well not be a nation!" The War Minister's opinion was always obvious. Most council meetings started with a loud argument between her and the colonial and quickly degenerated from there.

"She has a point," said the one who spoke for the nobles—at least, as much as anyone could speak for such a fragmented group. "It will be very difficult to make this payment. And need I remind you, Firelord, just _where_ most of your treasury comes from."

Zuko stared back at him evenly. "I highly appreciate the taxes _every_ class pays, of course." The first time he was nervous, but by now he was used to playing this game. "Incidentally," he turned to the Finance Minister, "how much _do_ the nobles contribute?"

The Finance Minister said falteringly, "Technically, around 75%. But since much of their income comes from taxing the peasants…" He never said anything Zuko hadn't said first, and was apparently uncomfortable making an original statement. Still, he served his purpose. The noble looked cowed.

The thrill of a temporary victory subsided when he glanced at the last member of the Council: the Fire Sages' representative, Teng Fei. Teng Fei was the second-newest member of the Council (the nobles chose a different representative practically every week) and rarely spoke, but Mai had warned Zuko the priest was dangerous the first time she saw him. He had kept an eye on the man ever since, but his face never deviated from its image of perfect serenity.

"We have to pay the Earth Kingdom somehow." The Colonial Minister was becoming more desperate the longer Zuko didn't betray his opinion. "If we don't, who knows what they'll do to us!"

The War Minister snorted. "Throw a few rocks?"

"_We're_ the ones who'll get crushed by those rocks!" The colonial was practically shouting.

"Don't worry, we'll be _sure_ to protect you."

"And the Earth Kingdom is the least of our problems," the colonial went on. "The Avatar—"

"It's always the _Avatar_ with you." The War Minister's tone was mocking. "Avatar this, Avatar that. She's the sister of our very own Firelord! She's not going to destroy our cities because of a few missed payments."

Zuko cleared his throat. While he was usually happy with letting them use up time with their pointless arguments, he couldn't let that pass without comment. "My sister and I aren't that close. Right now, all she wants is to keep our hard-won peace. _As do I_."

The general waved her hand dismissively. "As I said, Firelord, it's a few missed payments. If the Earth Kingdom attacks us over them, _they're_ the ones breaking the peace. If anything, the Avatar would be on our side."

"You can't know that for certain!" the Colonial Minister broke in. "Are you willing to risk our peoples' lives on your _guess_?"

"I agree with the War Minister, or at least her basic sentiment." The noble had recovered from his spar with Zuko and looked to have regained his confidence. "It's an old trick: threaten to ruin someone if they don't pay you, even if you have no intention of carrying the threat out. The Earth Kingdom wouldn't start a war over this. They've barely recovered from the last one."

Zuko steepled his fingers, deep in thought. He might have a point—nobody wanted another war, except maybe the War Minister (and most of the military, and many nobles and Fire Sages, and probably a good number of peasants…). Still. "If we deny the Earth Kingdom money, the Water Tribes might suspect they're next," he said slowly. "The Earth Kingdom might not move by itself, but allied with the rest of the world…"

"Have you been around the capitol recently?" Teng Fei spoke up suddenly. Everyone looked at the priest, silent in their bafflement. Smiling genially, he continued. "I took a stroll this morning, to see how the peasant folk are getting along these days. It's not well, to say the least. Poverty, hunger, crime…"

"We know all that," the colonial said.

Teng Fei ignored him and kept talking. "As you know, we Fire Sages were out of touch with the world for a long time. When the Firelord so graciously ended our exile," he bowed to Zuko in such a manner that Zuko couldn't tell he was being sarcastic or not, "I decided to spend years traveling around the country, to shore up my knowledge that was so clearly lacking. As a result, I came to several conclusions regarding our present situation. Does the Firelord wish to hear them?"

Mai moved her eyes in a way that was barely perceptible to everyone else, but Zuko knew what it meant: _Danger ahead_. Still, he couldn't deny Teng Fei's request while still being polite, and the priest likely knew it. "Certainly, Sage."

Teng Fei's smile, if possible, grew even broader. "We have spent the last one hundred years at war. Our entire society—culture, economy, government—became dependent on that war. When it ended, all our institutions lost their mooring. We no longer know who we are or what we are doing. All we have left is a great emptiness."

Mai was jabbing Zuko in the stomach now, but he couldn't do anything as Teng Fei started speaking faster, louder, and with more and more passion. "These reparation payments aren't the only reason our people are in poverty. Our nation is crumbling around us. All of _you_…" his eyes swept the room, but they lingered most on Zuko, "are only arguing about the best way to drain it of its final drops of blood."

"How dare you!" the noble shouted, jumping to his feet. The Colonial Minister was wringing his hands, while the War Minister slouched back in her chair with a dark expression on her face. Mai's entire body was tense, and Zuko knew she was fingering her knives, preparing to throw one into the priest's throat at a moment's notice.

"If you disagree with my methods," Zuko said as calmly as he could, "why don't you propose some of your own?"

Teng Fei's face lit up, and Zuko cursed his stupidity at falling into the priest's trap. "As the Firelord commands." Turning to face the entire room, he recited in a booming voice a speech he had surely memorized beforehand. "It was the Firelords who condemned us Sages to exile, the Firelords who murdered the dragons, the Firelords who tied our nation to a war, and the Firelords who cut those ties without worry about what would happen afterward. I am quite tired of letting the Firelord hold these sham Councils and then proceed to decide everything by himself anyway. I propose the Firelord give _us_ some of the power he now greedily keeps to himself."

For a time, everyone stared at the priest in shock.

Then the room erupted.

* * *

"Is this some sort of joke?"

_Oh, if only it was_. The deceit had worked perfectly, though Katara almost wished it hadn't. Azula and Kalu were crazy enough alone. Together, they managed to make old master Hama (Spirits rest her soul) seem like a harmless kitten-seal in comparison. But, as Azula took a little too much pleasure in pointing out, it was either this or let the South Pole-spanning war trudge on to its inevitable conclusion.

Well, there were probably other options too, but nobody could think of any.

So here she was, having fooled Andor and his alliance of Spirits-know-how-many tribes into thinking they were ambushing her main guerilla force. Instead they faced her.

Alone.

_Apparently I'm in quite a hurry to die._

"I will only say this once," Katara said, eyes scanning the featureless snow-covered plain, a light snowfall partly obscuring the sky. Her eyes only briefly landed on the remains of the fake camp they had set up, which she had destroyed in a grand column of snow when Andor's army had gotten close. "I do not wish to kill anyone. On the contrary, I wish for all of us to finally become one people. If you lay down your weapons and go home, no harm will befall you."

"No offense, Chieftain," Andor said, gesturing with his gigantic battleaxe, "but I do not believe you are in a position to make threats here."

His army looked to have somewhere in the range of seven or eight hundred warriors—around the point when adding more troops would just make the outfit unwieldy as a guerilla force. It had many powerful waterbenders with it; not coincidentally, it also contained a large number of graduates from Katara's waterbending academy.

This entire plan depended on Katara: her power and her charisma. Needless to say, even briefly reflecting on this fact made her want to curl up into a ball and cry herself to sleep. So she tried to ignore it, generally unsuccessfully.

Suddenly, she realized that most of Azula's plans depended almost completely on the Avatar's own power and charisma. She wasn't sure what she thought about that. But it made her feel a little better.

"What use is this war?" she asked, addressing not Andor but the entire enemy army, who were slowly getting over their initial shock and were now just waiting for a signal to attack her. "What do you gain out of killing and being killed by fellow Southern Water Tribespeople? If we want to be able to stand up to other countries in the future—"

"We've heard all this before," Andor cut her off, voice rough and gravelly, "and it ain't any more convincing now. _Kill her_!"

Over three hundred waterbenders raised their arms…

And the world turned into chaos.

The past few months, messages had bent sent to every one of her former students that were now among her enemies. Most of them followed the instructions and met with her. While all of _them_, naturally, agreed to ally with her in person, Katara had had no idea how many of them would actually follow through with it. From what little she could make out, it seemed a good number of them had. Katara wanted to think it was because she had convinced them with her argumentation and ideals, but probably most of them were just afraid of her—they had firsthand knowledge of the kinds of things she could do. And a few (Andor's son Baktu among them) had crushes on her.

Oh well, can't have everything. At least the biggest worry, that one of them would tell Andor everything and ruin their plan, did not come to pass.

The chaos caused by something like a hundred powerful waterbenders suddenly turning on their comrades dulled the attack coming Katara's way a bit, but not a lot. The snow beneath her snapped open like a giant mouth and two giant chunks of it were moving straight toward her. A classic move—even if the impact didn't kill her instantly, it would certainly knock her out and she'd suffocate to death soon enough. Being a waterbender herself she could stop it, but she'd have to defeat the combined might of two hundred plus enemy waterbenders to do it.

Luckily, she had two advantages. Number one: it was extremely difficult to coordinate so many benders, especially with the added challenge of mass dissension in the ranks. Number two: she was the most powerful non-Avatar waterbender in centuries.

Katara focused on her blood. She could feel it flowing through her body, just like the oceans flowed across the world. Just like the snow was flowing toward her now. Waterbending, at its core, was actually quite simple: sense the flow of the world, then move with it instead of against it.

More feeling than seeing the snow, she spun through the air, moving one half of her body up and the other down. The two giant mounds of snow—twenty times as big as she was—flowed around her, as if they were a river and she was a stone.

She had told her students this: _When the time comes, move away from the center_. She had no idea if they had managed it, but unfortunately she couldn't think of that now. As she fell into the gap the enemy's attack had created, she moved her arms forward and sent the mounds of snow forward and down, crashing into the ground. But they didn't stop. Instead, they kept moving forward, picking up more and more snow as they went along until they resembled tidal waves instead of clumps.

Most of the enemy waterbenders tried to stop them, but it was futile; they were trying to block the flow, not moving with it. Some of them tried counterattacking her, but the continually-increasing chaos made it difficult for them to get a clear view; the few counterattacks that actually occurred Katara batted away with her legs, keeping her arms constantly forward. A few realized the correct countermeasure was to move themselves upward and crest the snow wave, except they then realized that this tactic consigned their comrades to a very cold death.

_And that is the disadvantage of bringing an army to the South Pole._

Andor's voice rose over the din. "Someone do something!"

The two snow tidal waves, over fifty men wide and a hundred tall by the end, crashed into the enemy army.

A sudden wave of fatigue overcame Katara. She almost fainted, but she grit her teeth and stomped the small platform she had bent for herself. This next part was the most important.

Biting her bottom lip until she drew blood, Katara lowered her arms, concentrated, then raised them again. Twenty giant balls of snow rose up with her. Some of her students who had broken off from their former comrades followed her cue and raised snow spheres of their own. Some of the remaining non-benders had begun charging her; some of the remaining benders tried a few half-hearted counter-attacks, but her students were kind enough to stop those for her.

"You can still run away!" she shouted, stomped her foot, moved her arms down, and sent the spheres crashing into the remains of the army.

The enemy waterbenders probably managed to deflect the spheres a bit, but not a lot.

Katara was panting heavily now. It took all her willpower just to stay awake. It looked like there were still two hundred or so enemies left. If they attacked again…

But her reputation, the defection of her students, and her two displays did their jobs. The remaining enemy troops turned tail and ran.

Katara looked around at the ones that remained. She recognized their faces—former students all. Each expression was different: triumph, fear, sadness, apathy…

She called out to the nearest one, a girl (well, woman now) named Hova from the Western Icicle Tribe. "I'm going to need some help getting home," she said, and then finally fainted.

* * *

Probably the only reason Haru wasn't sweating was that he had already sweat out his body's entire supply of water.

With his help, the Avatar had went to every prominent Earth Kingdom city and village and essentially told them she'd back them in a revolt as long as they did it soon. (Apparently, she was telling the Grand Secretariat she was luring the rebellious elements into playing their hand early to entrap them; Haru wasn't sure how much of that was deception.) Then when Haru officially declared his province to be independent, the avalanche began and the citizens of most other provinces soon forced their leaders to follow.

The response of Ba Sing Se was to muster its army to attack him, as well as send Dai Li agents to assassinate him, as a lesson to the others. And the Avatar said she couldn't help him out openly because she had to keep fooling the Grand Secretariat. And most of the other revolting provinces were too busy worrying about themselves to be willing to help him out.

He probably should have seen all that coming.

Perhaps worst of all, of the few provinces that _were_ helping him out, by far the most powerful was…

"Say, Haru, have you ever noticed…"

He was a very powerful and influential Earthbender, but…

"'Impenetrable City' has something of a double entendre to it?"

Haru rubbed his temples. "No, I haven't. Thank you very much for the observation."

Bumi tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if the Grand Secretariat has ever been—"

Suddenly a pair of earthen hands rocketed from the walls of his mayoral office toward Haru's throat. But because they shut Bumi up, he was actually somewhat thankful for them.

Anyway, Haru brought his own fists up and punched through them, while Bumi made a motion at the wall, causing something close to an explosion and killing the Dai Li agent behind it.

"They are a parsimonious bunch," Bumi commented as he looked at the agent's body.

"…Do you mean persistent?"

Bumi looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Do I?"

Haru blinked, then rubbed his forehead and sighed. Bumi was almost a hundred and thirty years old; he had no idea how the man was still alive. Then again, he probably shouldn't complain.

"Why the long face?" Bumi asked, then tilted his head. "Wait…what does that expression even mean? It's not like our faces change in length—"

"Ba Sing Se's army is going to arrive here tomorrow," Haru interrupted him. "Even with your forces, we're outnumbered more than five to one." He sat down on his chair and held his head in his hands. "If all of us actually stood together, we might…"

"The lament of every would-be Earth Kingdom leader since time immemorial." Bumi let out a long, pensive sigh, causing Haru to look up—this was odd for him. He couldn't be sure, but the Mad King actually seemed to have a somewhat sane expression on his face. "Don't worry, though. Their attack will fail."

"Well, that's reassuring." The sarcasm tumbled out before Haru could stop it.

Luckily, Bumi just laughed. "Don't worry. The Avatar isn't a fool." The Mad King stepped forward and put a hand on Haru's shoulder, causing Haru to flinch back a bit. "Stay up late tonight. Something interesting could happen."

Haru gave him a blank expression. "Is there a reason you're being so vague?"

Bumi wagged his finger. "You never know who might be listening."

_But you already said something's going to happen…_ Haru thought, then sighed. It would be useless anyway.

However much he didn't trust Bumi, the Mad King was his most powerful—truthfully, his _only_ powerful—supporter. And without any other ideas, he stayed up late, looking over maps of his village and trying to figure out some way to delay the inevitable.

Finally, at some unholy hour of the night, he heard a very faint knocking at his door. Haru stood up slowly. Honestly, he half-expected this was just another prank of Bumi's…but would even the Mad King do something like that when they were all likely about to die?

…Actually, probably yes. Still though, he allowed himself to feel a measure of optimism as he unlocked the door and prepared to open it.

Suddenly he heard a loud crash and felt a sharp pain in his chest. Before he knew it, he was flying across the room and landed in a mangled heap on the ground.

Looking up, his vision blurry, he saw a warhammer through the wreckage of his wooden door—likely the cause of the pain and the flying. And the person holding it…

_Oh, crap_.

It was General Chen, one of the Council of Five and the man who was leading the assault against him.

Haru rolled to the side, ignoring the pain in his chest. He had endured much worse on the Fire Nation prison ship. He managed to avoid a rock Chen sent at him, but lost his footing when the General slammed his warhammer into the ground, causing the earth to shake. Panicked, he earthbent himself a hole in his house's wall and scrambled outside. He had to find—

Eight Dai Li agents were standing outside his house, right in front of him.

As they pointed their stone-cloaked hands at him, the most Haru could muster was a _Well, that's that then_.

Gritting his teeth, he stomped his foot hard and raised up a giant rock. At least he would go out figh—

A series of loud squishes emanated in the nighttime air. The boulder Haru had bent fell to the ground with a crash.

All the Dai Li agents were now suspended in the air, an earthen spike sticking out of their chests, bent from the ground behind them.

His mouth moved, but no words came out.

"Don't get all comatose on me now, kid," a voice said from his side.

Haru looked in its direction, and for Spirits know how many times that day, could barely form coherent thoughts through his shock.

The Avatar was the most famous person in the world, of course, but her assistant/friend/something, sometimes called the Blind Bandit, held her own share of fame.

"You did this?" he croaked out.

An odd flicker of guilt passed across the Blind Bandit's face, but it quickly regained its former slack-jawed arrogance. "Come on. I was only able to kill these guys 'cause you distracted them. There are still plenty out there."

The Blind Bandit started running. With little else to do, Haru followed her.

"Does this mean the Avatar is—"

"Azula's off in the Fire Nation. She doesn't want any of her own fingerprints on this." The Blind Bandit's tone, totally businesslike until now, took on an undertone of annoyance when she said, "I'm the one who takes care of her clandestine affairs, as it were. Easier to maintain plausible deniability."

"So then, what exactly is going on?"

"Watch out!" the Blind Bandit shouted. Looking at where she was pointing, he saw a group of Dai Li agents perched on the wall of a house.

The Blind Bandit stomped the ground, but the Dai Li leapt off the wall and shot their stone hands at them. Haru rolled out of the way, then looked up—

And saw that the Blind Bandit was pinned to the ground by the stone hands, which had slammed onto her ankles, wrists, and torso and stopped her from moving.

_Why…? _Realization hit him with a brick. _Oh right. If they're in the air, she can't…_

The ten or so Dai Li agents landed light as a feather and soon bent themselves another pair of stone gloves. Haru backed up, trying wildly to think of something, _anything_ to do.

A loud shriek slashed the air. Its source was the Blind Bandit, who bellowed like a beast from the Yellow Springs as she slammed her head against the ground. The impact was so loud Haru wondered for a brief second if she had committed suicide before he saw the stone hands gripping her body fly into the air.

The Blind Bandit had managed to earthbend with her head.

The Dai Li agents were good—they jumped into the air as soon as she was free. But Haru was better. He had already bent up a boulder, and sent it flying at the nearest Dai Li. You can't dodge in the air, and the agent was too distracted by the Blind Bandit to do anything but watch as the boulder slammed into him.

_One down_, he thought, as he suddenly became aware of sweat falling from him like a waterfall.

The other Dai Li agents were focused on the Blind Bandit and sent all their attacks at her. But Haru didn't have time to think about that. Gritting his teeth as his chest burned, he pulled up another rock and aimed it at a second agent. The agent actually managed to put his hand up to block in time, except Haru shifted its direction at the last moment and sent it slamming into the man's chest instead.

He grinned in spite of himself. He might not be a monster like the Blind Bandit or the Mad King, but he wasn't too shabby if he did say so himself.

His self-congratulation was soon ruined as something slammed into the back of his head.

Haru collapsed face-first into the ground. His nose broke with a _snap_ and he could almost feel his brain slam into the back of his skull. His head burned like it had been engulfed in flame for what felt like hours, but was probably only a second, and then he felt a layer of rock around his neck. In one millisecond, the Dai Li agent would squeeze his throat into pulp.

His hands shot up and grabbed the stone glove. Maybe the agent was surprised he could still move, or maybe Haru was just much more powerful than him. Either way, he pressed and earthbent the man's glove to squeeze the agent's hand into pulp instead. As the man screamed in agony, Haru bent his fingers into the earth, pulled up a slab of rock, and in one clean motion stood up and slammed the rock into the Dai Li agent's temple. He crumpled to the ground.

That surprise attack had hurt, but the Fire Nation had done far, _far_ worse. This pain was nothing compared to watching his father die of exhaustion on board that Tian-forsaken ship.

His head was pounding, but his vision was clearer than ever. The Blind Bandit's scream must have alerted people that something was wrong. All he had to do was hold out until reinforcements would arrive.

_That reminds me_. He looked for the Blind Bandit, and figured she was probably inside that giant earth cocoon that had suddenly appeared. The other Dai Li agents appeared to have their hands full avoiding the giant spikes she bent out of the ground. Two of them had already gotten impaled. But three of the others jumped into the air, one bending an opening in her protection and the other two sending their stone gloves at it.

Haru could feel blood mingling with sweat as they poured down his neck. But that didn't matter.

He didn't have time to block their attack, but the Blind Bandit could handle herself. Instead, he kneeled and slammed his fists into the ground, easily ignoring the pain. The greater control he had with his hands as opposed to his feet permitted him to draw fourteen rocks out of the ground, all of them the size of his head.

The Dai Li were very good at _chi_ control, sneak attacks, and assassination. What they were not good at was pure, brute force.

With a huge sweep of his arms, he sent all the rocks at the three Dai Li agents. They were in the air so they couldn't dodge, and they didn't have the power to deflect all of them. They did take a sort of defensive stance, but guarding your head with your arms really doesn't make a difference when giant rocks slam into your body at high speed. All three of them fell to the ground and didn't move.

Panting, Haru looked around wildly, trying to find another prime target. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed some stone hands flying at him. He managed to sweep them inside, only to feel another two clamp onto his back.

Haru fell to his knees. He grabbed onto the hands, but either this Dai Li was more powerful than the last or he was weaker—he stopped them from crushing him, but he couldn't get them off. He looked up and saw a Dai Li agent a few _bu_ away, probably the one who had originally attacked him, bend himself a new set of stone hands.

Panic gripped Haru surer than the stone gloves. If he let go of the ones around his torso, they'd crush him. If he didn't, the agent in front of him would kill him. What could he…?

He remembered the feat the Blind Bandit had pulled, back when she was pinned.

_Well, better than nothing_.

Haru shut his eyes, tried to remember those things his father had told him about feeling the earth with his spirit, dipped his head, then jerked it upward hard enough to feel his neck crack a little.

He opened his eyes. Much to his surprise, a boulder that had not been there before was floating in the air. The Dai Li agent in front of him was surprised, too. Smiling, Haru shot his head back down, and the boulder flew at the agent. Still in a state of shock, the Dai Li just stood there as the huge mass of rock slammed into him—then kept moving, carrying him into the wall behind them.

Haru was breathing very heavily now. That attack had taken a lot out of him. Now for the—

_Crap!_ He had taken his attention away from the stone hands around his torso, if only for a second. He grasped at them wildly—

Only to discover they weren't there anymore.

He looked down, dumbfounded. They were lying lifelessly on the ground. He looked behind him, only to be struck even more dumbfounded.

The Dai Li agent was sprawled face-down in the dirt, blood seeping out of his head. Standing over him with a bloody warhammer was General Chen.

"Sorry for attacking you earlier," he said, sounding honestly apologetic. "I had to make these bastards think I was on their side." He held a hand out to Haru. "Need help getting up?"

Without really thinking about it, Haru took his hand and let himself get pulled to his feet.

"Seems the Blind Bandit has taken out the others in this area," Chen said, jerking his head in their direction. Haru spared it a quick glance to see that indeed, all the Dai Li agents he could see were either impaled by a spike or collapsed on the ground. "Bumi has killed a lot of them as well. The Grand Secretariat went all-in on this, but we're probably almost finished now. Still, don't let your guard down."

Haru nodded. "Um…why are you…?"

"Helping you out?" A half-kind, half-malicious grin spread across Chen's face. "I save your ass and give you my army. In exchange, I'm the boss of everything north of Omashu and west of Ba Sing Se."

His mind stretched in all directions and twisted in on itself. Depending on how you interpreted that, he was asking for almost half the Earth Kingdom—including Haru's own village, of course. How could he possibly—

"If you refuse," Chen said, heaving up his warhammer, "I'll kill you."

Haru looked at the bloody hammer. He was distinctly aware that he barely had the strength to stand right now. "It's a deal," he heard himself say.

Chen's smile became distinctly more kindly. "Glad we have an understanding."

* * *

"The Avatar has arrived!" someone shouted. Zuko briefly wondered whose job it was to select these people, and whether or not they enjoyed it. Not for the first time, he reflected on how little he really knew about the sprawling organization he nominally headed.

Anything was better than thinking of what he was about to do.

After Teng Fei the Fire Sage's speech, the council chamber devolved into such chaos that Zuko couldn't remember precisely what happened. At some point in the inferno of arguments, though, someone—probably the colonial—suggested they take the dispute to the Avatar. The others were reluctant at first, considering she was his sister (few understood the extent to which Azula separated the personal from the political), but since the alternative was rapidly looking to be civil war Teng Fei eventually acquiesced, with one condition: the dispute be aired publicly, for any Fire Nation citizen to see. Everyone else soon fell into line.

So here they were, in the biggest public square in the Fire Nation. The 'debate' had been announced months in advance, and curiosity was high enough that the spectators were pressed together into a sea of humanity. Nothing like this had happened before in Fire Nation history, after all.

_And that's why I didn't want to think about this. _He wished his wife and children were with him, but since this was supposed to be a debate between him and Teng Fei, his family was in the front stands with the other important people.

Azula soon appeared out of the crowd. In the years since their father's…defeat, she had slowly but surely shed the outward appearance of Fire Nation nobility. The process had reached its final culmination: her hair was short and disheveled, her clothing a plain brown tunic and pants (with bare feet of course), and even her skin had tanned to a noticeably darker hue. The only outward sign of refinement anywhere on her now was the black, silken, ruby-inlaid covering around her eyes.

Of course, no matter what, she was still the Avatar. Few dared gossip about it.

Her walk, at least, was the same; she virtually stalked up to the raised dais at the front of the square and sat upon the giant chair there. She took a few seconds to sit with a contemplative look on her face, then said, "Well, we all know why we're here so let's skip the pleasantries. Firelord Zuko, you go first."

Zuko stood up and walked to the square's center, moving exactly as he had practiced with Mai so many times. He and his 'opponent' Teng Fei were technically addressing the Avatar, but everyone gathered knew the real point was convincing the gathered audience. He turned, faced Azula, and recited his speech from muscle memory gained through thousands of practices.

"For thousands of years, the Fire Nation has been ruled by the children of the Sun Spirit Amaterasu. I will not lie and say that rule has always been prosperous. Just like there are good and bad peasants, merchants, soldiers, and nobles, there have been both good and bad Firelords. Some have provided for our people while maintaining peace with our neighbors, while others have not. Nevertheless, until now, nobody has questioned our right to rule. Would Teng Fei have us believe that nobody thought about it before him?

"No, we all know the truth. Firelords are not perfect, it is true, but on average they are far more qualified to rule than nobles or priests. It is not just that the blood of Amaterasu runs through our veins. We learn how to rule from the day we're born. Just as peasants teach their children to farm rice and merchants teach their children to trade, Firelords teach their children to govern. We are the only ones who can rule because we are the only ones who know how.

"In addition, if Teng Fei wants to tear down the Firelords, who does he wish to replace us with? If anyone can rule, no matter their birthright, everyone will want to rule. The result would be civil war. The Fire Sages would fight the nobles would fight the military. The ones who suffer would, as always, be the peasants. Our choice is not between government under the Firelords and government under someone else. It is between government under the Firelords and no government at all.

"The blood of Amaterasu runs strong in some members of our family and weak in others. But it, and it alone, bestows the authority to command our great nation. The line of Amaterasu, and us alone, possess the Divine Right to Rule!"

With that Zuko brought his speech to its end, punctuated with a shout and a clenched fist. A huge noise arose from the audience, though it was hard to tell if it was of approval or disapproval. He thought it sounded like approval, but then again he probably would.

_Well, it doesn't really matter,_ he reflected as he walked back to his seat, back rigid and expression one of steely defiance. The debate had only just begun. Next Teng Fei would give his opening statements, and then they'd try to rebut each other, then Azula would question them…

He mentally slapped himself. _Just take things one step at a time._

As he sat down, Teng Fei stood up. The monk bowed to the audience on all four sides, gave one deep bow to the Avatar, stood up, and opened his mouth.

"Don't bother, monk," Azula said, cutting him off with a sweep of her hand. "This debate is over."

The entire square, thousands upon thousands of people, became dead silent.

Teng Fei was the first one to speak. "B-but that's…!" he stuttered. "Avatar, you can't—"

"Yes I can." She hopped out of her chair onto her feet. "I see no need to continue. I found Firelord Zuko's arguments thoroughly unconvincing, and so decide in favor of Master Teng Fei."

Still in shock, the square remained silent for a few more seconds. Then a sound unlike anything Zuko had heard before slammed into his ears, the voices of thousands of people each shouting something different. Despite what Azula had just said, all Zuko could think was that a riot was about to start—

The sound of thunder pierced through the din. A huge forked lightning bolt, bigger than the royal palace, rose into the heavens.

As the ringing in Zuko's ears slowly died down, he became aware that he couldn't move. Looking down, he saw it was because the ground under his feet had crept upward and encased his entire lower body in solid rock. A quick glance around revealed everyone else in the square was the same way.

Except for one person.

The Avatar's eye covering was off, but her sockets weren't empty. They were filled with a blinding white light.

"Zuko is not a god," she said, wind carrying her voice with utmost clarity. "The only god here is me."

The Avatar looked down, and all at once the sense that he was looking at something not of this world, something far beyond his comprehension, disappeared. His sister took her eye covering out of her pocket and tied it around her head. When she raised her head again, she was back to her usual self. Which, admittedly, was still terrifying. And half his body was still encased in rock.

"Before today, both Zuko and Teng Fei sent me letters outlining their major points. Teng Fei's included a rather impressively detailed account of what kind of government system he'd like to replace the Firelord's rule with. I will ignore all of it and propose my own system.

"New laws will be made and old laws will be annulled by a gathering of the nobles. A majority of votes is needed for either. The Firelord will still be the one who runs the government, but he—or she—must obey the dictates the nobles pass. The ones who ensure this will be the Fire Sages, who can annul the Firelord's power by a…let's say three-quarters vote. In this event, the Firelord's powers will become purely ceremonial and the nobles will choose one among their number to be the new head of government. However, the Fire Sages will be able to restore the old Firelord at any time through a majority vote. The military gets no additional power whatsoever. Of course, I will write up these new policies and put them in every hamlet in the Fire Nation so everyone knows them by heart.

"Work out the details yourselves, because I frankly can't be bothered."

She looked around the square, as if she were asking for someone to raise their voice in protest. Needless to say, no one did, not after her display in the Avatar State.

Azula turned her face to Zuko. He had no idea what he should do. But he got the feeling he didn't really have any choice in the matter.

* * *

"So Azula, I hear someone tried to kill my sister again."

Azula sighed. She didn't appreciate the accusing tone in Sokka's voice. Despite how full of himself he was for being Arnook's heir and all, he often seemed to think she could control the entire world. "You heard right."

"Is she unharmed?" Yue asked from Azula's other side.

"From what I understand." The tension in the air was palpable—mostly from Sokka's side—and she shrugged. "Look, unifying people who had been fighting each other for millennia isn't easy."

"I thought that was why you had her take on an entire army by herself," Sokka said, his tone even darker than before.

"That's why I _suggested_ she take on an entire army by herself," Azula amended, fist clenched. "It had the intended effect of terrifying everyone else, but order resting on fear doesn't last for very long. She's given her chief rivals powerful positions in the new government, but even so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a full-scale rebellion within a few years."

Sokka didn't sound convinced. But Yue said, "I believe in my sister-in-law. If anyone can do this, she can," and the implied critique ("Do you not have faith in your sister?") succeeded in calming him down, at least a little bit.

_Well, I suspect Kalu and Bato are the ones in charge of the political side of things_, Azula thought, but that was fine. Katara's role was to use her connections, power, and charisma to convince as many people as possible to follow her, and she was doing a pretty good job at it. That is, as long as she got a husband soon; people were already starting to grumble about the lack of an heir. Competently doing the role you're assigned is really all anyone could be expected of—at least, if everyone was like that the world would be a much easier place.

"Incidentally, Avatar," Yue said, probably trying to move the conversation away from Katara, something Azula was very grateful for, "I hear the situation in the Earth Kingdom—or should I say Earth Kingdoms now?—has settled down somewhat."

Azula considered that. "I suppose you could say that. Ba Sing Se gave up when half their army and two of the Council of Five defected, but nobody really knows what the borders of the new provinces will be and who'll run them." She shrugged again. "Well, Omashu's going to gobble up a fair amount, and the Bei Fongs already had control over half the colonies. So they'll probably end up being the big winners. Some people bit off more than they can chew," she briefly thought of her 'friend' General Chen, "and they'll pay for their mistakes sooner or later. But it'll be what it'll be."

"Really? You're not going to intervene?" Sokka said, voice laden with sarcasm. Apparently he was still in a bad mood.

"I will only intervene if it looks like the situation will develop into full-scale war," Azula said with impatience, "and I'm afraid I can't give you the details about that."

Sokka made a scoffing sound, clearly not believing her. _Well, whatever_, she thought. At least she had managed to get that Haru guy effective independence of his village, despite nominally owing allegiance to Chen. You needed to reward your followers.

After a minute of uncomfortable silence, Yue cleared her throat. "We recently received reports about the situation in the Fire Nation."

_This'll be interesting,_ Azula thought. "And?"

"I was somewhat…surprised at the actions you took," Yue said hesitantly, as if afraid Azula would take on the Avatar State right then and there if she perceived any insult.

Azula thought for a bit about what she wanted to say. "The entire situation was a clusterf—mess of gigantic proportions. No matter what I did I'd piss off half the country. So I just did what felt right."

That wasn't even really a lie.

"You really think it'll work out?" Sokka asked. Azula did a double-take; as far as she could tell, he wasn't asking a rhetorical question, but was honestly curious. Huh.

"Well, nobody in power now has the courage to oppose me." _Especially since I'm the only reason they haven't gotten in trouble for missing their reparation payments,_ she might have added, but of course Sokka and Yue knew that and she didn't feel like getting into another argument about it with them. "As for the peasants, I suspect most of them don't really care who's in charge as long as they're not starving to death. Of course, I haven't really solved the underlying issues, but the system can always change again if those become overpowering."

"You don't think that's a bad thing?" The accusatory tone in Sokka's voice was back, but it was different from last time. It was more like they were engaging in a debate, now. "You've set the precedent for changing the foundations of government. What's to stop that from happening every few years? Won't that cause chaos?"

Azula looked at him for a few long seconds. "Everything has its risks," she said evenly. "If this causes the Fire Nation to collapse in on itself, well, maybe that was meant to happen. No matter what though, I'll be there to help rebuild from the ashes."

And that, too, wasn't really a lie.

Before any of them could say something else, the ceremony finally commenced. Someone announced the presence of every important Northern Water Tribe official (and the Avatar), and then Arnook finally began his speech.

"The Hundred Years' War and its aftermath has changed much about us," he said, his voice weathered with old age yet still strong enough to carry across the entire square. "It gave my daughter a husband and myself a son, but it took away many other husbands, sons, and fathers. It revealed in stark terms our weak relations to other countries, even our sister tribes in the South. But most of all, it forced us to confront how the rest of the world saw us.

"This city was constructed hundreds of years ago, to celebrate our unification as one tribe. We knew other peoples had kings, large governments, and extensive economies, but we never saw the need for any of them. We were proud of our heritage, proud of the fact that all our sons knew how to hunt, craft, and fight when the average foreigner had trouble even wielding a sword. We knew they thought of us as uncivilized barbarians, and we didn't care.

"But the War made us see the folly of that way of thinking. The Fire Nation didn't attack us for over seventy years. We thought that was because we were strong, but we were wrong—it was because we were weak. We would have been wiped out sixteen years ago, were it not for the Avatar."

For a few seconds, Azula knew the eyes of everyone present were on her. She kept up an impassive expression.

"We are still proud of our history, and rightfully so. We are still proud of our culture, and rightfully so. But we cannot ignore the rest of the world any longer. Right now, we are still weaker than our neighbors. We can become stronger, but only if we want to—only if we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to do so. It will be a very long process, but it is a necessary one. As always, actions are far more difficult than words, but words can be just as important.

"Therefore, as Chieftain of the Northern Water Tribe, I gratefully put to rest our old name. Starting today, we will be known as the Water Empire!" A raucous cheer greeted him as every Northern Water Tribe citizen present, or she should probably say Water Empire citizen now, screamed in celebration.

_An empire of a wasteland, with just a few cities to its name,_ Azula thought to herself. But maybe she shouldn't be so harsh. Just like everyone else, they were trying to take charge of their own destiny. At least they were doing it without killing anyone.

_It'll be what it'll be._ Even the Avatar could only do so much.

* * *

**End of Chapter 12**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **So yeah, it's been over four months. I cannot apologize enough for the delay. The chapter was somewhat difficult, but mostly graduate school left me without much energy to write. And by the time I _did_ feel up to writing, it was NaNoWriMo time. This chapter ended up being extra-long so I hope that partly makes up for it.

I won't try to give estimates on when the next chapter might be posted. I'll just say this: no matter what, I _will_ finish this fic eventually (hopefully sometime this year at least). I have a plan, I know how it's going to end, and I really want to write that ending. I promise publically that this won't become a Dead Fic (assuming I myself do not die of course), so that if I break that promise I will feel immense and crushing shame.

Anyway. If you didn't remember, "Impenetrable City" is the translation the show gave for "Ba Sing Se." The Yellow Springs, at least according to the internet, is a place in ancient Chinese mythology similar to Hell. As a reminder, Tian was basically the chief god of Imperial China. A _bu_ is a unit of length in ancient China; its precise length varied but was usually around one meter.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	13. Enlightenment, Part 3

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 12.

**Timeline Note: **The "Enlightenment" chapters take place approximately one year after Ozai's death.

Special thanks to my beta, **Lavanya Six**!

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

**Chapter 13**

**Enlightenment, Part 3**

* * *

"The third Chakra is the Fire Chakra, located in the stomach."

"I'm disappointed, Guru." After she said it, Pathik seemed slightly annoyed that she had interrupted his customary speech. She took not a small amount of pleasure from that. "The last two times," she continued, "our location was a good match for the Chakra we were dealing with. But now," she swept her arm in a long arc, "we're just sitting on the edge of the mountainside. What does that have to do with fire?"

"Would you prefer we be inside a volcano?"

"Kind of."

Pathik sighed. Azula mentally congratulated herself on her victory. "Moving on," he said. "This Chakra deals with willpower and is blocked by shame."

"Okay, question."

"What is it, Avatar?" Pathik asked in a resigned tone.

"I got rid of my guilt back at the second Chakra, right? What's the difference between that and shame?"

"Hmmm…"

_Damn,_ Azula thought, _does he always have to make such a show of—_

"That's a very good question, Avatar. I'm not sure I know the answer."

Azula probably should have expected that. Nevertheless, she was surprised.

"Well, maybe it's not so strange," Pathik continued. "Language is an awfully slapdash creation, after all!" And he gave another of his famous laughs.

Azula burned silently.

"In any case," Pathik said, switching back to a businesslike tone, "let's start with this: what are your biggest disappointments in yourself?"

She leaned back against the mountain and thought about that for a bit. "I still don't see the difference between that and what we did with the second Chakra," she said finally.

Pathik was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, "On further reflection, it's perhaps accurate to say that guilt mainly concerns your actions, while shame mainly concerns your person."

"So it's like, what am I ashamed at myself for _being_?"

"Indeed." He sounded almost like a proud father. Well, whatever.

"But what am I, really?" Azula said airily, waving her hand in the air for dramatic effect.

She had expected that to annoy him. Instead, Pathik said with complete seriousness, "I believe you already know the answer to that question, _Avatar_."

Azula opened her mouth—for what purpose she didn't know—when the realization of his meaning arose to her conscious mind. After a few seconds, she said, "You can be a real bastard sometimes, you know."

* * *

"Father?"

When she entered the room Azula glanced at Father's desk and felt guilty. He looked to be quite busy. But when Father turned to look at her, there was only a flash of annoyance before he smiled at her like he always did, with perfect kindness. "What is it, my dear daughter?"

_I guess I've interrupted him already_, Azula told herself to justify not leaving him to his business. "What's an Avatar?" she asked.

The look of annoyance lasted longer than a flash this time. "Where did you hear that word?"

His sudden anger took Azula back. "I overheard some of the servants talking about what'll happen when 'the new Avatar' comes…" Luckily she was able to keep from stammering, though she couldn't hold eye contact.

Father ran his hand over his face and sighed, but when he moved his hand away his face was back to its look of serene kindness. "It's earlier than I had planned, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you now." He pulled up a chair next to him and patted it. "Come sit, Azula."

Azula was a little hesitant, but she had seen Father upset, and he didn't seem upset now. She walked to the chair and sat down, turning around to face him.

Father looked at her and didn't say anything. But Azula wasn't scared—he wasn't radiating anger or disapproval; he was merely thinking. So she waited until he was ready to speak.

Finally, he said, "The Avatar is a tricky subject to talk about. At its most basic level, the Avatar is an extremely powerful spirit that takes the form of a human, and reincarnates into a new human when it dies. Do you understand?"

Azula thought about the strange word, 'reincarnates.' Father never told her what the meaning of a new word was; she had to try to guess it first. "Whenever it dies…" she said slowly, "it's born again?"

Father smiled widely, causing Azula to smile too. "Very good. Now, most people—well, practically all foreign barbarians but a not insignificant number of Fire Nation citizens too—believe the Avatar is a beneficial force whose role is to maintain the balance of the world."

She tilted her head. She hadn't heard 'balance' be used in that way before, and Father always told her to ask him if she didn't understand something. "What does that mean, Father?"

He laughed, embarrassing Azula until she realized he wasn't laughing at her. "I've wondered that my entire life," he said proudly when he finished. That made her feel good again. "Indeed, the common myth doesn't actually make any sense. Your grandfather Firelord Azulon and his father, the late Firelord Sozin, realized the same thing. So the next question is," he leaned down so their eyes were level, "why do so many people believe such an absurd notion?"

"Because people are stupid," Azula said immediately.

Father smiled again, but with less pride this time. That made her sad. "Correct, but incomplete," he said. "It is also because they are afraid. As I said, the Avatar is extremely powerful. To be more specific, it can bend all four elements."

That _did_ surprise her. "Really?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, Azula." Azula became sad again. "Yes, really. And it's a Master-class bender at each element, too."

"Not as good as me though, right?" she asked brightly, with a big smile.

Father chuckled and patted her head. "Of course not. But it's still vastly more powerful than almost all humans. It's understandable that they'd prefer to think such a mighty being was good instead of evil."

Azula crossed her arms and looked down, thinking about all her Father had said. "So…" she said slowly, "the Avatar's evil, then?"

Father regarded her seriously. She did her best to put on her most serious face as well. "The late Firelord Sozin researched the history of the Avatar extensively. I'll tell you the details when you're older," _I hate it when he says that_, Azula thought, "but I'll tell you his conclusion now: the Avatar is a being sent from the Spirit World to keep our world weak."

She tilted her head again. She knew a little bit about the Spirit World, but not a lot. "Why would the Spirit World want to do something like that?"

He regarded her seriously again. Azula kept eye contact, making sure to keep emotions away from her face like Father had taught her. Finally he said, "I have my theories. We can discuss them when you're older." _He said it again_, she thought angrily. "For now, all you have to know is this: the Avatar is a traitor. A traitor that revealed its true colors when it tried to stop the Fire Nation's righteous advancement of humanity. It is a dangerous enemy, one I will eventually have to face, as will you."

Azula nodded seriously. She always made sure to memorize everything her father said while he was in serious mode. He was always right.

"Do you have any other questions?" he asked kindly.

She thought for a bit, then shook her head.

"Good. Now why don't you go practice your bending while I finish up here? I'll come train you soon."

Azula nodded vigorously as she stood up. She walked out of the room and dashed down the hallway. Father's training was painful, but it made her stronger so it was worth it. After all, he was always right.

* * *

"You see these visions too, right?" Azula said, acid in her voice.

"You are correct," Pathik responded shamelessly. Well, if he had opened all his Chakras, maybe lack of shame was to be expected. "Incidentally," he said, "how old were you in that scene? I couldn't quite tell."

She sighed, leaned back, and tried to remember. "I think five. Maybe six."

Pathik remained silent after that. _At least sometimes he has a modicum of tact_. Azula just continued leaning against the mountain, feeling the sun's rays warm her body.

"Now what?" she said after a while.

"It seems we've discovered the major source of your shame. Now all you have to do is get rid of it."

"And how do I do that?"

Pathik cleared his throat. "You cannot deny what you are without—"

"I didn't ask for the moral of the story."

"I've told you before that I can only guide you, not help you. If you feel you've been guided sufficiently already, there's really not much else I can do."

"You mean other than giving me visions and forcing me to feel all the pain I've ever inflicted?"

At least Pathik had the good sense to sound somewhat contrite. "You eliminated your fear and guilt entirely by yourself, Avatar. As we move through the Chakras, purifying them will only become more and more difficult. There truly is nothing else I can do now."

She couldn't bring herself to feel very annoyed. In fact, right now she didn't feel anything in particular. Pathik had told her sleeping wouldn't refresh her until she saw the process through to its end, but she hadn't expected it to be as tiring as it was. The forced empathy Pathik had done during the previous Chakra (_How long ago was that?_) really had taken a lot out of her. And even after this, there was still what, four Chakras to go?

_If I can gain control of the Avatar State…_

"I'll try ruminating it on for a while," she said, "and see if I think of anything."

* * *

She didn't think of anything. And she was starting to get sore, sitting in the same position for hours. (_It has been hours, right? Maybe it's only been one hour…_)

"Um, Guru. Not that I want to complain, but sitting in this position is getting uncomfortable."

"Then why don't you stand up?" Pathik's tone conveyed the impression he thought she belonged to the highest class of idiots.

"But isn't sitting like this required for meditation, or something?"

"Not really."

"Then why did you make me do it!"

"From what I can recall, I made you do nothing. You just copied me."

Azula opened her mouth, thought a bit, sighed, then stood up. She really needed to stop trying to argue with Pathik.

"So have you come to any conclusions?" Pathik asked lightly.

Her mind had been running around in circles, but as she tried to formulate something to say in order not to sound embarrassingly stupid, words involuntarily sprang to her lips. "I understand _intellectually_ what I have to do. I have to discard the things I learned in childhood, fully accept who I am, etcetera etcetera. But it seems like I can't get rid of my emotion through logical argumentation this time."

"This time?"

Azula berated herself for the slip. He may have been able to read her mind, but that was still no reason to reveal more than she should. Probably. "Never mind. It's not important."

"Undoubtedly."

"Anyway." She leaned against the mountainside behind her. "It's not just what Ozai told me. Being the Avatar caused me to lose these," she pointed at her eye sockets, "put me in a prison for two months, and basically ruined my life. So yeah, I'm still bitter at the Avatar Spirit, and don't really want to accept it's actually me." She paused. "Incidentally, just how is that supposed to work?"

"The Avatar?"

"I mean, the whole reincarnation thing. I'm supposed to be something like the same person as my previous…selves, right?"

Pathik made a humming noise. "That is almost but not precisely true. But do go on."

Azula paused for a bit, shook her head, then continued. "Anyway. The thing is, I'm really different from the previous Avatars. So how are we supposed to be the same person?"

"Ah, but in point of fact, you are not the same person. You are the same _spirit_."

"Do we have to play word games in all our conversations?"

Pathik made his annoying humming noise again. Second time in less than a minute; he was setting a record. "Think of it like this. What were you like when you were one year old?"

"…I imagine I was a mewling brat, just like every other baby that's ever existed."

"And yet you were the same person then as you are now. Correct?"

Azula thought that over for a bit. "So you're saying it's the same thing with me and the other Avatars?"

"Precisely. You learn quickly." Pathik sounded almost proud.

"Then what exactly _is_ a spirit?"

Wind brushed against her skin—the result of Pathik stretching his arms out wide. "What exactly is a person, or a rock, or existence in general? _Those_, Avatar, are the grand mysteries of our universe."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"We've gotten off track, haven't we?" Azula finally said.

"Everything is connected—"

"_Haven't we_?"

Pathik laughed. "If the root of your shame is your relationship with the Avatar Spirit, then perhaps not."

Azula sighed. "Well in any event, it hasn't helped."

"That's too bad."

She turned her head to look straight at him. She grumbled inwardly at being unable to see his expression.

Pathik started humming again. She hadn't thought it was possible, but Azula was starting to get used to that sound. "Well, it seems we have no choice," he said.

"Please don't tell me there _was_ something else you could do all along."

"Not at all. It is something _you_ have to do. I can only teach it."

Azula tried to dredge up some anger at him for screwing with her, _again_, but all she could muster was a sigh. "And why didn't you tell me about this before?"

She was expecting to hear some sort of stupid proverb, presumably involving patience or what have you. Instead he was silent for a bit, and when he spoke he sounded almost hesitant. "I was hoping to save it for later Chakras. It is a technique that grows less effective the more it is used."

"But because I'm doing such a crap job with this one, we have no other choice?"

On a conscious level she had meant it as a joke, probably, but the tone that came out was bitter and resentful. Pathik seemed to take it in stride. "If you will," he said.

"All right, then. What is it?"

"You will enter your own mind, as it were, confront your shame head-on, and defeat it."

Azula couldn't quite figure out what to say.

"Through a certain meditation technique," Pathik went on, "you will visualize your mind as a great winding cavern, and in it you will find—"

"Okay, two things," Azula interrupted. "First of all, how can I enter my own mind?"

"It's a metaphor for self-examination."

"Yes, I know that. But look, say I come across my shame or whatever. Won't it still be _in here_," she pointed at her head, "even while I'm confronting it 'out there'?"

"I don't see the issue." Pathik seemed genuinely puzzled.

"Well, it can't be in both places at once!"

"Why not?"

"It—" Azula checked herself. Then she slapped her own forehead. It didn't hurt as much as she thought it would. Oh, well.

"Are you okay?" Pathik asked, not really sounding concerned.

"Yeah, sure," she said. "So second, exactly how am I supposed to confront my shame?"

"It is different for every person," Pathik said lightly. "In your case, if I had to guess, I'd say you'll personify it and then engage it in some sort of battle."

_Well, I guess that _does_ sound like me_, Azula thought.

"Any other objections?"

Azula thought for a bit, then shrugged. _I guess it's not stupider than most of the stuff he's done so far_. "I suppose not."

"Then as I was saying before I was interrupted," Pathik said, actually with no anger discernible in his tone, "in that cavern you will find objects representing various facets of yourself. I recommend you ignore them and find whatever represents your shame as fast as possible."

"Why is that?"

"The entire point of this exercise is to be able to deal with your mind as if it were an outside entity. But ultimately, it is still a part of your self. Spend too much time in the cavern and you will get accustomed to it, and then the exercise will become pointless."

That actually made a little bit of sense, kind of. "I see."

"So are you up to it?"

Azula shrugged. "Better than running my mind around in circles."

"Then I shall teach you the technique. It is actually relatively simple. First…"

* * *

Needless to say, after an hour (_Two hours?_) of trying to learn the "simple" technique Azula finally found herself standing in what appeared to her eyes, or mind's eye or whatever, to be a large cave (_Oh goodie, I get to see when it isn't real again_). The rough-hewn walls and ceiling of the cavern were illuminated by…well, apparently not by anything in particular; they just kind of glowed. Looking around, the only thing of note she could see was a patch of darkness in the wall across from her, which presumably designated a tunnel of some sort.

_So I guess this is an antechamber or something?_ she thought. Well, nothing to do but to do it. Azula strolled into the tunnel. She kept a look out for anything that might represent her shame, preparing to look away immediately should she spot anything that…didn't seem like it represented her shame.

"See, this is why I hate the Spirit World," she told nobody in particular. "Well, one of the reasons. Everything is so slapdash."

She soon emerged into a much larger chamber, stretching farther than the eye—mind's eye, etc.—could see. She could even hear the gargle of a stream somewhere in the endless black, though she couldn't even begin to guess what _that_ was supposed to be a metaphor for.

There was still nothing of interest to note. Picking a tunnel at random, she began walking. And walking.

As it turned out, searching the contours of her own mind was, somewhat ironically, a fairly mindless endeavor. While she walked through the endless tunnels, many things caught the corner of her eye—a ruddy red robe, a faded oil painting, and rows upon rows of sparkling swords and spears, to name just a few—but she couldn't think of any of them as being her shame. Mindful of not getting too 'accustomed' to them she didn't stop to examine them closely, and it didn't take long for her to get the distinct impression she was walking through a world of shadows which would soon dissolve back into nothingness if she focused too much on them.

And yet she didn't really get bored, or frustrated, or even angry at Pathik for the umpteenth time. In fact, she didn't feel much of anything, just a sort of detached judgment faculty. Even the feeling of the ground beneath her feet and the sensation of air moving into and out of her lungs went away when she put the slightest bit of attention on them.

Even when the thought _Is this what I'll always be like after I unlock all the Chakras?_ floated across her mind, the only response that registered was _I suppose I should ask Pathik about it afterward_.

In this state she spent an indefinite amount of time until finally she stepped into yet another chamber and saw something new: a flash of yellow that soon disappeared into one of the many tunnels. _If it's moving, maybe there's something alive here_, Azula thought, briefly noted that she didn't think 'something _else_ alive here,' then ran after it.

As perhaps should have been expected, the object she was running after kept at the very edge of her vision, briefly appearing every so often just to let her know she was still on its trail before disappearing into the blackness again. After a long chase (though she couldn't even begin to estimate its length) she finally came across something new: a dead end. The object came into full view.

It was a very large man, in both size and girth—he was at least three heads taller than Azula and almost twice as round. He was wearing a gaudy, bright yellow robe inlaid with ruby and sapphire badger-moles. Complete with a bald head, he almost looked like an egg. But there was something about him…

"Who are you?" Azula asked, but as she did she knew, and all her emotions came flooding back.

The man bowed. "It's nice to finally meet you, Princess. My name is Shen. You might have heard of me?"

She nodded mutely. It was the last Earth Avatar, the one directly before her.

* * *

"What are you—" Azula started to say, but was interrupted when Shen rushed at her, moving much faster than a man that size should, aiming a punch downward at her head that Azula barely managed to avoid. Out of instinct she brought her fist forward, though she wasn't particularly surprised when nothing came out.

"Can't firebend in here, sorry," Shen said, almost apologetically. "After all, we're in your head."

"Yeah, I guessed that. Why are you—"

This time, Shen aimed a roundhouse kick at her neck. Azula swerved out of the way and tried to elbow the man in the stomach. She made contact, but it had no effect on Shen, who proceeded to smack Azula right in the ribs, palm open. Azula skidded across the ground and slammed into a wall.

Apparently while she couldn't bend in her mind, she could very well feel pain.

"So the representation of my shame for being the Avatar is the previous Avatar?" Azula asked, trying her best to stand up gracefully. "I had hoped my mind would be more creative."

"Sometimes what's simple is what's best," Shen said, walking toward her. Azula managed to roll out of the way of his next punch, which hit the wall instead—and from what Azula could see out of the corner of her eye, sunk into it with a loud _smash_ and didn't even get damaged.

Even if he was a metaphor and so could do whatever he wanted, Azula thought that was more than a little unfair.

"So what, I beat you in a fight and that means I've overcome my shame?" she asked.

Shen shrugged. "I imagine you'll have to overcome your shame first, and only then will you be able to defeat me."

Azula considered that while diving away from Shen's next attack, a downward punch that smashed a hole into the ground this time. "I suppose that makes sense, as far as these things go."

"You don't seem to have much hope of beating me now," Shen said with a smile.

Before Azula could come up with a proper retort to that, she soon had to spend all her mental energies (despite being _inside_ her mind already, whatever that meant) dodging the barrage of punches Shen sent her way next. Soon she was forced to block instead of dodge. When Shen's fist met her arm she heard, then felt, a loud _crack_ and the impact sent her flying back a few _shaku_. She eventually landed in a heap on the floor, arm aflame and the rest of her body not too well-off either. Shen chuckled as Azula bit back a groan.

"How sad," he said, "the Princess of the grand Fire Nation, most powerful country in the world, reduced to a pain-wracked mass."

Azula stood up, left arm hanging uselessly at her side. "I'm not the Princess anymore," she said, gritting her teeth. "I'm the Avatar."

"In here, _I'm_ the Avatar," Shen said, standing in a way that managed to be both relaxed and intimidating. "Or at least the metaphor for the Avatar. Though I suppose you're right that you're not the Princess now. Of course," he said, the smile returned, "you were never the Avatar, either. The Avatar Spirit's the actual Avatar, after all; you're just one of its many, _many_ incarnations. So what does that make you?" He put on a contemplative pose.

Azula gripped her broken left arm with her right. "So this is how it's going to go, is it?"

"Indeed." Shen walked up to Azula. She tensed, waiting for the attack, but he stopped before getting in range and instead pointed at her, his finger a short distance away from her face. "You're nothing. Not the Princess, not the Avatar. Just a tool the world uses to keep itself in balance."

She knew it was bait. She told herself she was just pretending to fall for it and feinted a kick to Shen's legs, then turned it into a punch aimed at the man's head. He just grabbed Azula's own head with one enormous hand and yanked her up and away. Azula couldn't help screaming as all five of Shen's fingers dug into her forehead, temples, and face.

"This time, you didn't ask Pathik why shame blocks willpower," Shen said offhandedly as various unpleasant colors smeared Azula's vision, and her immense pain didn't stop her from feeling blood flowing down her neck. "Did you manage to figure it out on your own?"

Azula screamed and clawed at Shen, but all she could do was flail uselessly; his body was well out of reach.

"I'll take that as a 'no.'" Shen sighed sadly. "Oh, well. I'll tell you, then. It's not that complicated. If you're overcome with shame, whether it's because you're the Avatar or because, without the Avatar, you'd be pointless…" Azula didn't think it was possible, but Shen's fingers clenched around her head even tighter, magnifying the pain twofold, "then you don't have the confidence in yourself necessary to do, well, anything.

"You've built up a lot of very elaborate walls around yourself, but those two months you spent in that prison and those two years you spent failing to airbend are still there. All it takes is one failure and it'll all come tumbling down." Shen smiled. "Then again, I suppose you learned that at the North Pole, didn't you?"

Azula tried to scream, but it came out as more of a groan.

Shen made a bored noise and threw Azula away. She landed on her broken left arm, which sent a new cascade of pain throughout her body. Her right hand was wracked with spasms as she raised it to her head to check the damage.

'Not good' would be an understatement.

She didn't know when it happened, but at some point Shen was standing over her. "Immense pain seemed to help you with the first and second Chakras, but it seems like it's not having much of an effect for this one," he said, almost wistfully. "Well, you can't always win, I suppose."

Azula couldn't even mount a token resistance as Shen placed his foot on her neck.

"Any last words?"

Azula's mouth moved, but nothing came out.

"Too bad."

Shen's foot slammed down. Blood filled Azula's mouth.

And then, there she was again, looking at Shen's back.

He turned around. "What the—"

Azula's fist slashed forward. She decided she didn't feel like punching Shen into the opposite wall. Instead, she just sunk her fist into Shen's chest and crushed his heart.

The man's mouth opened silently as he slumped down against Azula.

"I may be nothing," Azula said calmly. "But if you're just one part of me, what does that make you?"

And Azula could feel her awareness rising up out of her body. She only had a few seconds to look at the scene from a third-person perspective before it got lost in the sea of endless caverns until finally all became black…

* * *

Though sensations came back to her, and she once again felt the presence of her body in her being, the blackness remained. But Azula was actually grateful for that. At least like this, she could see properly.

"Congratulations, Avatar," Pathik said. "You have opened the third Chakra."

Azula grunted.

"Shall we move on to the fourth Chakra?" he said cheerfully.

"Before that, I have a question for you."

"As long as it's not about my age, I'll answer anything!"

"I wasn't inside my mind just now, was I?"

Azula savored the silence that met that question, for the second it lasted. "Whatever makes you think that?" Pathik asked.

"You mean other than the fact that the entire concept is even stupider than everything else we've done so far? Other than the fact that there's no way I could enter my own mind, even if I could I wouldn't picture it as some huge cave, and even if I did my shame personifying and fighting me makes absolutely no sense?" Azula put her head back against the mountainside, drew in a deep breath, and recited: " 'This time, you didn't ask Pathik why shame blocks willpower.' 'If you're too overcome with shame . . . then you don't have the confidence in yourself necessary to do, well, anything.' And so on." She stood up. "You did a good job acting, I'll admit, and I was fooled at the time, but in retrospect it has your fingers all over it, sad to say."

"Seems like I got caught," Pathik said. Once again, he at least had the good sense to sound contrite. "I suppose now you know why the technique is less effective the more it's used."

"Indeed. So what exactly _did_ you do?" Azula asked.

"Hmmm…" Pathik hummed. _Seems he's back to the annoying mannerisms_, Azula thought. It was actually somewhat comforting. "To put it simply, we both went into a sort of pocket dimension enclosed from the rest of the Spirit World and—"

"Okay, okay, sorry I asked."

Pathik laughed.

"Well, you at least got to take perverse pleasure in beating me up," she said. "Hope you're satisfied with that."

"Technically, you weren't fighting me, but a projection I made such that…"

Azula sighed as Pathik started leading her to their next meditation spot, blabbering on about Spirit World metaphysics even more incomprehensibly than Aang did. Until something from the previous exercise popped into her mind.

"Um, Guru?" she asked, interrupted his speech.

"Yes?"

_When I open all the Chakras, will I lose all emotions? Will I just become an automaton, doing whatever will bring balance to the world because that's what I'm supposed to do? _"…Nevermind, it's not important."

"As you say."

* * *

**End of Chapter 13**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well, at least this one took less time than Chapter 12 did.

Graduate school has started up for me again, and it tends to drain the creative juices sad to say. It also took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with this chapter—I don't want to just repeat myself with the Enlightenment chapters, after all. Let's see, the next one is…hmm, love and grief. That one ought to be interesting.

A _shaku_ is an old Japanese unit of measurement approximately equal to 11.93 inches (or so says Wikipedia).

Something else I want to say: I recently got the idea for another fanfic that I'm quite excited about (for [a few] details, check my profile). The good news for you is, I don't want to start working on it seriously until I finish (or am close to finishing) this, so that should give me some good motivation to get chapters out more quickly.

One last thing: I don't say this often because I don't like trolling for reviews. However, I really do highly appreciate every review I get. So I'll give a huge "thank you" to everyone who leaves a review, especially the ones that have constructive criticism. You can't improve if you don't know what you're doing wrong!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	14. The Northern Air Temple

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter 13.

**Timeline note: **This chapter takes place a short time after Chapter 11.

(Unfortunately, **Lavanya Six** was not available to beta this chapter [but you should read her fics if you haven't already]. If it's worse than normal, that's why.)

* * *

**The Adventures of Avatar Azula**

An _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ fanfic

* * *

Zhao frowned as he looked at his new subordinates.

Many rumors swirled around Colonel Mongke and his "Rough Rhinos," both good and bad. The good: They were an elite task force. The bad: Everyone except the leader got killed in an ill-fated attack on Omashu a few years back. The good: Mongke managed to acquire a new set of five who were supposedly even better. The bad: They were all siblings, and their mother was one of the deserters after the army besieging Ba Sing Se was routed by Avatar Shen. (_Talk about ill-fated attacks_…)

"It is an honor to work under the illustrious Admiral Zhao," Mongke said.

Zhao grunted. Mongke had been his own boss for years; he probably resented being put under someone else's command. Well, who didn't? "I am blessed to have the services of a team of your caliber."

"Shall I introduce them, then?" Mongke gestured, and the five soldiers behind him stepped forward. Zhao frowned again—only two of them were standing at attention; one woman was slouching, and the other two were even whispering to each other!

"As you may have heard, they're all siblings," Mongke said.

Zhao gritted his teeth. "Are you going to ignore your squad's insubordination?" he asked the man.

At least Mongke had the decency, or perhaps the good sense, to look somewhat apologetic. "I've tried my best, but they don't take well to that kind of thing."

The slouching woman giggled. The whispering ones continued whispering.

Zhao shook his head. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in days; he wasn't in the mood to deal with this. "Whatever. Go ahead and introduce them."

Mongke nodded. "The oldest is Jun. He was in the Yuyan Archers before I picked him up, you know."

That much was obvious from his face tattoos. Apart from that, the man was fairly nondescript. "Why'd you leave?" he asked.

Jun was silent, but the short woman with low-cut hair next to him finally stopped slouching, though it was just to elbow him in the ribs. "Big bro here missed his siblings and wanted to be with us again," she said, winking.

Zhao glared at her. "Is that how you address your superior?"

The woman shrugged. Zhao turned his glare to Mongke. "That's Osami," Mongke said with a resigned tone. "She's actually the first one of them I met."

"I tried to slit his throat and steal his stuff," Osami said casually, twirling a dagger in her hand. "Before I could though, we were attacked by some Earth Kingdomers who were pursuing him or something. Anyway, he said if I joined him I'd be able to make a lot more money than if I robbed him, so." She shrugged.

Zhao looked at Mongke for an explanation. He didn't get one.

"So then I told him," Osami continued, now twirling a dagger in _each_ hand, "I had this little sister, see, and she has like monster strength. Might be helpful, yeah?"

Zhao had to admit she had a point as he looked at the third member of their motley band, a giant muscular woman who towered over everyone present and had a warhammer almost as big as herself strapped to her back.

"Colonel Mongke said he'd wipe my record clean if I worked for him," the woman said, her voice rough and deep.

"Record?" Zhao regretted saying it as soon as the word left his mouth, but it was too late now.

"You could say we broke Suzue out of prison," the thief Osami said conspiratorially, who for reasons inexplicable was now balancing a knife on her head, blade down, while still twirling those daggers.

"Dare I ask what these two are like?" Zhao gestured at the long-haired duo who had been whispering amongst themselves this entire time.

"Hiro! Hina!" Mongke barked. The two of them stopped talking to each other and faced forward, thank Agni, but they were still grinning widely.

"Are they twins?" Zhao asked. They looked almost identical, and with that long, flowing hair and those immaculate robes, they looked more like actors in a _kabuki_ play than soldiers. He couldn't even tell which was the male and which the female. At least in _kabuki_ you knew they were all men.

"You are correct, Admiral," Mongke replied. "And despite the way they look, I assure you that when working together they are the most fearsome firebenders I have ever had the pleasure to witness."

Zhao had a hard time believing that, unless Mongke had very limited experience with firebenders. The two were whispering to each other again, and this time they were even _giggling_.

He fought the urge to groan. First he was assigned the mindless duty of collecting new weapons from that coward squatting in the Northern Air Temple, and then he was given _these_ jokers to command? Was his Admiralty just for decoration?

* * *

**Chapter 14**

**The Northern Air Temple**

* * *

"So what can I do for you, Avatar?"

Azula raised the cup of tea to her face, smelled the distinctive scent of coal smoke, and did her best to set the cup down gracefully. "You know very well why I'm here. Don't play dumb."

Sometimes, the lack of visual cues still gave her trouble in social situations. Not this time, though; a blind deaf toddler could read the man sitting across from her. "I, I only designed weapons for the Fire Nation in order to protect—"

She raised her hand to cut him off. "I'm sure that's a very interesting story, but all I really want from you right now is to _stop doing it_."

Truth be told, she already knew the story and it wasn't very interesting. Some time ago, a man named…actually, she didn't remember his name. Whatever. Anyway, some flood destroyed his village, blah blah blah, eventually he managed to lead the survivors to the Northern Air Temple somehow. Apparently he was some sort of genius mechanist, so the Fire Nation accosted him to design weapons for the war effort. As the former Princess of the Fire Nation, Azula had naturally been aware of this state of affairs, and had informed her new…_allies_ of this fact at the South Pole. So they had decided to make him the final stopover before her ragtag band reached the Northern Pole.

"Avatar." The mechanist's voice was trembling. "Trust me, I would if I could, but…"

Azula idly tapped her fingers on the tabletop in front of her. "You know, I noticed something while chatting with your, I suppose I should call them 'villagers'? None of them even _mentioned_ working for the Fire Nation." She gave him her sweetest smile. "Does that seem odd to you? You'd think they'd know about it."

Once again, she didn't need eyesight to read him perfectly.

"…They'll be here in two days for more blueprints," the mechanist almost mumbled. "If I don't give them any…"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Azula said while standing up. "If they attack, they'll have zero chance of success."

"Why do you say that?"

She stomped her left foot down with authority. "We're on top of a mountain with only one narrow path leading to us, not to mention it's covered in ice. With Master-class benders on your side," she grinned at him, somewhat less kindly, "this might be the most impregnable defensive location in the world."

* * *

"So you see with earthbending?" Teo asked.

"Something like that," Toph responded.

Azula had given the people here some story about how they saw a Fire Nation army approaching before they came to the Temple, and how the army 'probably wants to kill you all to use this as a base of operations for conquering the Earth Kingdom.' Then she forced Toph and the others to play along. Well, whatever.

"Wow, that's awesome," Teo said with a wistful tone.

Having arrived at the right spot, Toph began the work of digging another ditch. Azula had assigned her the task of making the road up to the Temple as treacherous as possible. Teo had come along for fun.

"Why so gloomy?" she asked as she slowly kneaded the ground out, piling it up into a wall on the side nearer the Temple. "Can't you fly with your chair?"

"It's not as simple as that. I need gusts of air to ride on, so I can only do it outside and I don't have full control."

"Well, my 'earthbending sight' has some limitations too, you know."

"But it's good enough that your everyday life is almost unchanged, right?"

Toph had dug so many ditches by now she barely had to pay attention anymore (the dirt practically moved itself), so she was able to consider that. "I guess. I dunno. I was born this way, so I don't ever think about it."

"I know what you mean. I've been like this since before I can remember, so I don't really mind it most of the time. Still though, I can't really deny it makes my life much more difficult."

Toph grunted. She had reached a particularly hard area of ground; she had to move it up as a single unit instead of making it flow like sand, and that required more effort. "Everybody's life is difficult," she said after she flung it in front of the ditch. "Back in my home city, there are tons of people who barely have enough to eat. On balance, I'd say you have it pretty good here."

"I wasn't denying that. I'm just a little jealous of you, that's all."

Toph thought about her mother forbidding anyone from visiting her, about her father telling her—in front of the Avatar—that she was going to be watched every hour of every day. She thought about Azula's plan, and what she'd have to do tomorrow… "Guess I can't blame you for that," she said.

* * *

Zhao sighed as he entered the elevator that would take him straight to the mechanist's room. Admittedly it was much more convenient than trudging up that damn mountain, but it still took a while, and really anyone could do it. But of course it wouldn't be _proper_ for a low-ranking soldier to negotiate with such an important war asset, no matter how cowardly that asset was.

The Firelord (glory to his name) said Zhao was only doing this because he "happened to be in the area," but he still couldn't help feeling like it was some sort of punishment. At this rate, he was never going to get the chance to invade the Northern—

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt the elevator stop. _Well, might as well get this over with_, he thought. "I'm here to collect—"

A blast of water blanketed him, forcing him backward and freezing him to the wall.

_What the hell!_

"Zhao. It's been a while."

He instinctively turned to the owner of that voice, and his blood ran hot.

The Traitor to the Fire Nation. The Avatar.

"What are you doing here!" he yelled.

"I have no reason to tell you that," she said dismissively. "All I want to tell you is that the mechanist here," she gestured at the man, who was doing a terrible job at concealing his fear, "is working for me now."

"Don't you mean _with_ you?" a young girl slouching on a chair asked.

The Avatar shrugged. "Anyway, as such this temple is under my protection, so if you try to invade it you will all be killed. Naya, you can let him go now."

A dark-skinned woman nodded, moved her arms, and the ice encasing Zhao melted away.

Zhao rubbed his arms and considered his options. Being in the same room as the Avatar was a rare chance, and he was angry enough to be highly tempted to make an attempt at capturing her right now…but he was also clearly outnumbered. Besides, he had an army down there, and the Avatar was basically trapped on this mountain. Despite her bluster, Zhao realized that he actually had her just where he wanted her.

He wasn't sure why she hadn't killed him, but if she didn't before she probably wouldn't now. So he allowed himself to say, "Before the day is out, Avatar, you'll be on a ship and sent back to your father. This time, I doubt he'll leave it at your eyes." Savoring the momentary look of rage that passed over the Avatar's mask of indifference, he turned to the mechanist and said, "You really tossing your lot in with her?"

The man didn't say anything and looked down. Zhao rolled his eyes.

"I really suggest you leave now," the Avatar said in a low voice.

"Pray to whatever primitive spirits you worship," Zhao told the gathered audience, "because you'll be meeting them soon enough." He sauntered to the elevator and took it down.

As the ride went on, Zhao's grin grew wider and wider. He would kill enough people that the mechanist would back down and rejoin him, wipe out the Avatar's little escort, _and_ bring the Traitor herself back to the Firelord. His punishment had instantly turned into the greatest chance for glory he ever had. The day was looking very up indeed.

* * *

"Hey, where's Sokka?"

"He and the Mechanist hit it off somehow," Azula responded. "Idiots of a feather flock together, I suppose. Anyway, they're working on building some sort of flying balloon."

"Huh. Well, any little bit helps, I suppose," Toph said.

They were sitting a short distance away from the temple. Azula had melted the snow surrounding them already; if she hadn't, their bare feet would've gone numb from the cold, which would not have been good for their sight.

Toph spoke up again. "By the way, is there a reason you let that commander guy go?"

"Zhao?" Azula scoffed. "I met him a few times in the Fire Nation. Trust me, he's more use to us alive than—"

"It's started," Toph interrupted her. "I can see they're approaching the first trench."

Azula grunted. Toph was still smug that Azula's tremorsense didn't extend as far as hers did. "Alright. Kalu, go inform everyone. We'll start the bombing at around the halfway point. Might as well have them tire themselves out first."

Most of war was waiting, but this battle was even more waiting than normal. Her battle plan required a large number of enemy soldiers on the mountain to achieve maximum efficiency. Thanks to Toph's previous handiwork, it was going to take a while for that to happen. A good, long while for all the civilians to get even more nervous before their first battle.

_Well, all they have to do is glide above the enemy and drop stuff_, Azula thought_. We're the ones who have the dangerous part._

It took an hour for the enemy to reach the halfway point, at which time Azula ordered the bombing raid to commence. Kalu and Naya talked to a few of the bombers as the operation was proceeding, and reported that it seemed to be going well. They were barely taking any retaliatory barrages.

_That's weird. Is Zhou keeping his firebenders in reserve? What for?_

"Um, Azula?" Toph asked beside her.

"What?"

"Does the Fire Nation own some sort of mobile house?"

Azula thought for a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I can see a really big metal…_thing_ moving down there, so—"

"She probably means the Tundra tank," Kalu broke in. "The Mechanist showed me some blueprints he had drawn up."

"Never heard of it," Azula said offhandedly. "Must've been after I left. What are they?"

"As Toph eloquently put it," Kalu said pleasantly, "they are big metal things. They run on treads and encase soldiers inside, usually firebenders—there's an opening that lets them see and shoot fire to the outside."

Azula nodded. "I don't see how they'd be much more effective than ordinary soldiers in this situation—"

She was interrupted by the sight of many hooks digging into the corner of the cliff the temple was on.

"They are also equipped with grappling hooks," Kalu said.

"They're climbing up the mountain," Toph added.

Azula sighed, then shrugged. "Looks like we'll have to unleash our grand surprise early. It's a shame, but what can you do. Toph?"

"Ready."

Azula stood up. "Then one, two, and…"

In sync, they put their left foot forward, did the proper _katas_, then stomped their right foot down.

The mountain rumbled as the fractures they had set up in advance ruptured. Earth pushed against earth, stone smashed stone, and the cliff broke, sending waves of rocks cascading down the mountain, crushing all in their way. After less than a minute, the Fire Nation force on the mountain had been effectively routed.

"Well," Azula said while rolling her shoulders, "that's likely the end of it. Honestly, two master-class Earthbenders on top of a mountain is just…" Her voice trailed off as she noticed Toph was not as happy as she had expected. "Toph?"

"Y-yeah?"

She raised an eyebrow at the other girl's hesitation. "Is…something wrong?"

"No, not really. It's just…" Toph's voice took on a strange tone. "How many people do you think died just now?"

Azula quite honestly could not believe she had just asked that question. "Are you kidding? This is _war_, you know. If they won, what do you think would happen to—"

Her angry rant was interrupted by another round of hooks implanting themselves into the cliff corner. "Kalu?" she said, her voice threatening.

"I perhaps forgot to mention that they carry two sets of grappling hooks."

Azula pinched her nose. "Well, I guess we'll have to be more precise this time around. Ready, Toph?"

The other girl didn't respond. "Toph!" Azula repeated, her voice loud enough that it was probably heard across the entire mountaintop.

"S-sure. I mean, yes, I am."

"Then let's do it. One, two…"

This time, the _katas_ were different. Only the earth the hooks were attached to was knocked away, sending the tanks hurtling down again.

Only to reattach themselves with (presumably) the first set of hooks a second later.

"…Okay, I probably should've seen that one coming. Kalu, tell the civilians to get inside. The real battle is about to start."

"Sure thing. And by the way, it's counterbalanced by water, so I recommend freezing the axles." With that, Kalu ran off.

"If you don't want to _kill_ anyone, Toph," Azula said bitterly, "I suggest you leave now."

"I don't _want_ to kill anyone," Toph responded, just as bitterly. "But I'll do it anyway."

"As you will."

* * *

Zhao punched the side of his personal Tundra tank. It hurt. "An avalanche!" he roared.

"I warned you this might happen, Admiral," Mongke said, with an infuriating _told-you-so_ tone.

"I've never seen an earthbender cause an avalanche before," Zhao said. "Even if she's the Avatar, she's only fourteen. How was this possible!"

Mongke shrugged. "She _is_ the Avatar, as you say."

Zhao paced, fuming silently. After a minute or so, Mongke said, "Admiral?"

"Don't bother, I know what you're going to ask me." Zhao waved his hand. "Fine. Send your little group up. What harm could they cause now?"

Mongke bowed absurdly low. "Your wish is my command, Admiral." He ran off.

_Sure it is_, Zhao thought. This battle was basically as good as lost. He glared up at the mountaintop, the temple not even visible from down here at the bottom. All his work, so many good soldiers lost, just to get back some cowardly designer who probably wasn't even needed anymore, if he ever truly was. If only the Firelord had listened to him, he might've already have killed the Moon…

* * *

Azula had not intended for the enemy to even reach the top of the mountain, much less do so with tanks. It was impossible for them to be supported by foot soldiers at this point, and she couldn't imagine Zhao had too many of them. But still, the only people here who could fight them here were her, Toph, Naya, and Kalu (and Kalu probably wouldn't be of much use against machines).

Kalu had told her to freeze their axles, but it was hard to do that from far away, and she would rather not get close to the things if at all possible. So she spent the few seconds it took the tanks to finish scaling the mountain trying to come up with a better stratagem.

All she could think of was 'all-out attack with firebending.' Which did tend to work in the past. The only other possibility was to try bending lightning at them, but the last time she had tried to bend lightning had…not ended well.

She breathed in deeply, went into a stance, waited for the second the first tank would finish climbing up, and launched a huge blast of fire as soon as it righted itself onto the mountaintop.

A loud scream of pain graced her ears, confirming the fact that the fire had entered the opening in the tank. Pleased, she bent the ground underneath it a short way upwards and back, sending it toppling off the mountain. Most likely the tank's operators had more things to worry about now than rappelling back up to the top.

Wind currents brushing against her skin and a slight increase of heat in the air alerted her that a fireball was approaching. She snuffed it with a wave of the hand and a gust of wind, then counterattacked with another blast of fire. The tank she aimed at stopped, but she didn't hear any screams of pain this time, so she stomped one foot, then the other, raised her arms, and sent the ground under the tank upward, flipping it over and landing it on its back.

She was pleased with herself for about a second, before it started moving forward again.

A thought suddenly popped into her head: _Well, look at that_. _The Fire Nation really is centuries ahead of everyone else when it comes to technology. Do they really think they can win this war?_

She shook her head furiously. _What the hell was that! The Fire Nation is the _enemy_ now!_ Angry at herself, she raised her hand up, bringing a large mound of snow with it, then slashed, drenching the tank in question with water. Breathing in, she airbent a veritable tornado at the tank, freezing all the water and rending it immobile.

Azula panted. Whatever pride she might've felt was overridden at shame of having let her emotions take advantage of her like that. She couldn't waste that amount of energy to destroy every tank.

And from looking, there was a _lot_ of them. Naya was doing well, but her abilities lay more in precision than in brute power; she could only attack one at a time. Kalu, of course, couldn't do that much. And Toph…

"What in Agni's name are you doing, Toph!" she shouted.

"I'm trying to deal with these tanks," the other girl grunted. "You should too."

"Really? Because from what I'm seeing—" Azula paused to launch a stream of fire at the newest tank that breached the cliff, burning the operator and sending the tank hurtling back down the mountain in one go—"you're throwing rocks at them! Yeah, that'll work well."

"I'm trying to block the opening."

"You can't _see_ the opening!"

"You have a better idea!"

A tank was getting near them. More careful this time to only use as much strength as necessary, Azula covered its axles with water and blew on the water to freeze it. "How about you bend a _big _boulder up and crush them?"

"That would take too long and require too much energy." Toph spoke in a monotone. "This is more efficient."

Azula could've slapped her, if she wasn't too busy deflecting fireballs and counterattacking with her own flames. Despite their efforts, the tanks were only increasing, their attacks were becoming more constant, and the situation was starting to look quite bad. "Cut the crap! You just don't want to kill them, do you?"

"_No_!" Toph screamed, and Azula could've sworn the ground under them swayed a little. "No, I don't! Just now was the first time I killed anyone, okay! I'm sorry that I'm not an unfeeling monster like you!"

The next thing Azula knew, her hand was stinging from its impact with Toph's face, the other girl sprawled on the ground from the impact.

_Agni _damn _it! This isn't the time, Azula!_ She felt she should say something, but she couldn't think what. Instead, she tried to bend some more water onto a tank, but doing that while simultaneously blocking their attacks was difficult even for her.

Toph stood up and mumbled something.

"What was that?" she asked, slowly making an icy claw grasp one of the tank's axles.

"I said _fine_! If you want death, have at it!"

Toph stomped one foot. A piece of earth rose up. She stomped the other, and a second piece broke off. They flew, the air currents on Azula's skin telling the story, slamming into two of the tanks and sending them flying—into each other. They collapsed in a heap.

Azula froze the second axle.

"What was that you said about throwing rocks?" Toph was as smug as Azula had ever heard her.

"Do that some more, and you can brag as much as you want."

The situation wasn't actually as bad as Azula had feared. Zhao had basically sent all his tanks up in one go. The attack was already starting to let up, and with the work of Azula, Toph, and Naya (and even Kalu managed to somehow sneak into one of them and take out the soldiers inside), the remaining tanks were destroyed.

After Naya took care of the last one, the four of them gathered together.

"Do you see any more of them?" Naya asked.

"I think there are two more coming up," Toph answered.

They were all panting heavily (except Kalu); it had been a taxing battle. But it was almost over.

"Alright," Azula said. "When they come up, Naya and I will take care of them, and the battle's over. We won't even need Sokka's balloon thing. Ready, Naya?"

She guessed Naya was gracing her with a withering look. "Is that an insult? Of course I am."

"Just making sure. They're almost here."

As the tanks crested the cliff, Azula did the proper _katas_, moved the water up, and—

Just in time, she felt the arrow. She desperately bent air at it, and managed to deflect it…almost. It grazed her right arm.

"Get back, Naya!" she roared, and bent a high wall of rock in front of them as a stopgap measure.

The others ran toward her. Naya spoke first. "What's—"

"If I'm right," Azula interrupted, "that was a Yuyan Archer."

Silence greeted that statement. "Are you sure?" Kalu asked.

"The aim was too good. We'll have to be careful with these ones." Her brain whirred. She opened her mouth to start giving orders when she stumbled, and had to put a hand on her earthbent wall to support herself.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked.

"Oh no. No, you're kidding me," Azula murmured, grasping the scratch the arrow had made.

"What's the matter?"

Azula gave a weak, ironic smile. "That arrow was poisoned."

* * *

"What did you say!" Toph shouted, as Kalu ran toward Azula and crouched down.

"You heard me. How is it, Kalu?"

"There's only so much I can do on the battlefield." Kalu's voice was as strained as Toph had ever heard it. "How does it feel?"

"We don't have time for this," Azula said. "Do as much as you can to arrest its spread." Kalu started pulling things out of his pockets. "We'll just have to kill them quickly. Toph!"

"Y-yes?"

"I'm…having a little bit of a hard time concentrating. How many are there?"

Toph gulped, and trying her best to ignore the knots her stomach was tying itself into, focused on her tremorsense. "Two tanks. Four people left them. I…don't know if the archer's one of them."

"How many—unh!" Azula stumbled a little, but she righted herself quickly. "How many of the tanks are moving?"

"…One. I think."

"So the other was abandoned. That's…" Azula was panting now. "That's something. Okay, we need some intelligence on them, so—"

Suddenly, the temperature around Toph went from 'cold' to '_blazing hot_.' She almost felt like she was being cooked alive for a few seconds before it went away again just as suddenly. "What was that!"

"Huge waves of flame erupted from the sides and top of the wall," Kalu said.

"Firebenders," Naya grunted. Then, sounding surprised, she said, "Azula?"

"…How much fire was there?" Azula asked.

"As far as the eye could see," Kalu said.

"…That shouldn't be possible," Azula mumbled. "I've never seen someone bend so much fire. Not even me."

Naya said, voice hard as steel, "So we have a master archer with poison arrows, a firebender stronger than the Avatar, and at least three others?"

"We don't _know_ because we have no _information_!" Azula shouted, banging her fist against the wall. "And if we try to _get_ information—"

Her point was punctuated by another few seconds of intense heat.

"They've got us pinned down," Kalu said.

"Toph! What are their movements?" Azula demanded.

Toph gulped and concentrated. "Two of them are standing directly opposite us. The other two are each moving to one of our sides, diagonally. The tank is far back and to the left."

"Alright." Azula leaned against the wall and slid down. "The flame attack was centered on us, so the two opposite us are probably firebenders working together. Toph, bend some rocks and harry the ones who are moving. They'll probably—_unh_!—dodge but we shouldn't let them go unmolested. Naya…um, get some icicles ready to send at anyone who enters your field of vision. Kalu…keep treating me, and when you've done all you can try to get a look at the field without getting yourself killed."

Another blast of fire. This one lasted twice as long as the previous two.

With sweat dripping from her body, Toph stomped her foot, knocking four rocks up out of the ground.

* * *

"Alright, little Avatar. I've done all I can."

Azula's breathing was rough and ragged. Her tremorsense was grainy and weak, like it was for the first few weeks she had been learning it. She couldn't feel her right arm at all anymore, and she had to focus most of her concentration just to think. "What's the prognosis?" she asked, making her voice as low as she could.

"I used waterbending to arrest the poison's spread," Kalu said, voice similarly low, "but I need a few days to cleanse it from your system. For now you should live, but you'll probably slowly get worse until I put you to sleep."

Azula nodded slowly. "Alright. Play along." She stood up, cleared her throat, and addressed the others. "I'm not sunshine and roses, but Kalu says I can fight. What's the situation?"

"Is that true, Kalu?" Naya asked.

She looked at him expectantly. He would understand: the fewer of them who knew how badly off she truly was, the better. "She is the Avatar, after all," Kalu said.

After a pause, Naya said, "We're at a stalemate."

"I can stop them from moving forward by smashing rocks down in front of them," Toph said, sounding almost as tired as Azula felt, "but that's about it. And they're still—"

A drastic increase of temperature indicated that the firebenders had launched another attack.

"—doing that."

Azula bit her lip, and her hand (the left one, of course; she couldn't move her right) unconsciously rose to her eye socket and started scratching it underneath her eye covering. She didn't feel like stopping it. "All right," she said, focusing on sounding decisive and fully awake, "we need to cause some sort of breakthrough. Maybe I can use airbending to—"

"Uh-oh," Kalu said.

"What? What is it?"

"I dunno," Toph said.

Kalu said, "Look over there," presumably for Naya's benefit.

"…Looks like Sokka and that mechanist finished the war balloon," Naya said.

"And that's bad?"

"They're kind of sitting frog-ducks," Kalu pointed out.

Azula thought for a moment, then realized in her present condition more thinking wasn't going to help much. "All right. New plan: come with me, then kill the bastards."

With that, Azula dove to the right, outside her earthbent wall.

* * *

Naya didn't have time to think—all she could do was follow the Avatar. Which was, of course, the point.

As soon as they went outside the safety of the wall, a tsunami of flame raced toward them. The Avatar rotated her left arm in a wide circle, and right before the fire hit a bubble of air gusted around the four of them, shunting the fire to its sides, top, and back.

It was an island of breath in a sea of flame.

"Did you think this through!" Toph shouted, her voice barely carrying over the roar of the flames and wind.

"No time!" the Avatar shouted back, arm still rotating, the sweat falling off her body visible even against the backdrop of red and orange. "Follow!"

She started running forward. Naya and the others had no choice but to obey.

Suddenly, the fire stopped.

Something caused Naya to move. Maybe it was instinct honed through years of combat, maybe it was intuition as a result of her constantly trying to predict the enemy's movements. It might even have been spiritual inspiration. Whatever it was, Naya started moving as soon as the fire cut out, and shoved the Avatar onto the ground.

As she was falling down herself, an arrow passed a hair's breadth over her head.

"Wall!" she shouted before she hit the ground. Toph must've understood her, because an earthen wall rose before them just in time to block the next blast of flames.

She stood up, and helped the Avatar up as well. She expected protestations that 'I can stand up by myself,' but instead the Avatar just said, "Take the wall down on three, Toph."

Naya swallowed. She couldn't imagine the Avatar was pleased that she had pushed her down. "There was an arrow—"

"I know. Now shut up and follow. One," she started rotating her arm again, "two, _three_!"

The wall came down. As soon as it did, the fire stopped. This time nobody needed any help to duck.

As perhaps should have been expected, this time the arrow didn't come immediately. It only appeared after they had already hit the ground.

Another wall arose just in time to block it. There was no way they could've dodged from a prone position.

The Avatar gave an incoherent scream as yet another wave of fire crashed against the rock barrier.

She stopped after a few seconds, but Naya and Kalu were speechless. Even Toph only said, "Azula?"

"I'm poisoned, our only reinforcement's going to be shot down in seconds, and we're completely pinned down as long as that archer's there!" The Avatar was almost screeching now. "Don't you understand? We're all going to die!"

Naya looked at Kalu and Toph. Kalu's face was ice. Toph was biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. She looked back at the Avatar, her forehead resting on the wall, hair in disarray, right arm hanging uselessly at her side, for the first time in Naya's memory looking more like a person than a force of nature.

Naya's mouth started moving. "We need to take out the archer, then?" it said.

The Avatar barked a short laugh. "Yeah, but I can't think of a way to—what are you doing?"

Naya moved to the edge of the wall. Some of the fire licked her skin. She bent down, picked up some of the snow, bent it into water, then ice. More specifically, three small icicles.

The flames went away a second later. As soon as they did, she stepped outside.

From the previous arrows' trajectories, she had a very good idea of where the archer was. As soon as she entered the enemy's visibility, she threw her icicles.

As time slowed, she saw the archer. He was inside a tank, a larger opening than normal cut to allow him maximum visibility and flexibility with his aim.

His attack had started before hers did. She got a very good view of the arrow as it approached her, until it finally sunk into her stomach.

The last thing she saw before black overtook her was her icicles entering the archer's chest and neck. The last thing she felt was satisfaction.

* * *

Azula wasn't sure what emotion she experienced when she saw Naya step outside, then fall down. Whatever it was, though, she shoved it somewhere deep inside. It wasn't valuable in the current situation.

"The archer?" she demanded.

Kalu hesitated, but he knew better than to do it for long. He approached the edge of the wall. "I…think he's dead, but—"

Azula clenched her fist. "Then it's time for the endgame." She stomped her foot, breaking the wall up out of the ground, then pushed her hand forward, launching it at the firebenders.

The air told her some more projectiles were coming at her, but they were much larger and slower than arrows. She airbent them aside with one swipe of the hand; when they hit the ground, she saw them to be something like daggers.

It was taking an effort even to stand up straight now. Even with the archer dead, they were still at a disadvantage with those firebenders out there. How could she…?

The decision was taken away from her when she felt and saw the next fire attack.

This one wasn't a huge wave like the others. It was much more concentrated—about as wide as herself—and far hotter. This thing would punch right through her wind and would probably blast apart any of her earthen walls. In which case, there was only one thing to do.

She stuck her left arm out and used her own firebending to make it stop.

She didn't have the strength in her to swipe it aside or to weaken it. All she could do was prevent its movements. And even then, the amount of _ki_ she had to put into her arm was straining it to the breaking point. She had no idea how much longer it would last before it became as useless as her right.

The two other enemies started running toward them, and all she could do was hope Toph and Kalu could fend them off.

* * *

Kalu could finally take a good look at their adversaries. But he didn't have nearly enough time to conduct an adequate analysis. So he stuck to the surface details.

With Azula holding off the firebenders, he looked at the other two. One was a small, lithe woman holding a knife in each hand. The other was a giant with a warhammer.

He knew which one _he_ would rather fight.

"I've got the one on the left. Watch out for the right woman's warhammer," he told Toph, and walked toward the knife woman, wielding his own dagger in his right hand and an elementary water whip in his left.

He attacked her with the whip when she came in range. She ducked and rolled under it, then sprang up to aim a knife at his throat. He managed to block it, but her other knife sank into his side.

His left hand bent some water out of his pouch and used it to push her away. Racing back, he used more water to apply emergency healing to his wound. But the woman recovered quickly, and he didn't have enough time to finish before he was forced to block again.

Her arms were blurs. He could barely keep up with one of the knives, and the other easily cut through any feeble ice barriers he made. It cut into his arms, knees, torso, thighs…

This wasn't working. He was no fighter. In a few seconds he would be dead. He needed to approach this from a different direction.

His dagger moved down and right to block her next blow. But he went too far, and his left was now wide open. Grinning, the woman slid over to his left side, knives aimed at his waist and armpit.

Exactly as he had wanted her to do.

His left leg kicked forward, moving the snow she was standing on with it. Off-balance in the middle of her attack, she slipped and fell onto her face.

As she fell down, she managed to stab one of her knives into his foot. He ignored that, and moved his arms forward in a grand sweeping gesture, sending the snow and his enemy with it a good distance away, back toward the firebenders.

Suddenly the world spun around him for a second, and Kalu barely managed to break his fall with his hands. Blood was dripping from his many wounds. He was absolutely winded; he was not a good fighter, and that tussle had sapped most of his remaining energy.

At this point, it was all up to…Sokka.

_We're all going to die._

* * *

Toph didn't have time to argue as Kalu dashed off. She was tired, cranky, worried about everyone else, and pissed off at just about everyone (especially herself) because they were all probably about to die.

Somehow she managed to force her concentration onto her opponent.

She could tell from her footsteps (_Her? Kalu did say "woman"…_) that whoever she was, she was big. Toph tried bending the ground under her to trip her up, but she was built so heavily she wasn't even fazed. Next, she tried bending up a wall, but the woman immediately smashed it to bits with her (according to Kalu) warhammer.

For the first time in her life, Toph was faced with a one-on-one fight she wasn't sure she could win.

The enemy was close now. Toph dodged backward just in time to avoid the warhammer's downward swing, but the tremors from the impact caused her to tumble to the ground. She tried bending the ground up to encase the enemy's hammer and feet, but she couldn't make it strong enough fast enough; the woman broke out of it easily.

She scrambled up and dove out of the way of the enemy's next attack. She avoided it again, but not by as much as last time. She fell from the tremors and rolled some distance along the ground.

The enemy was right next to her now. Unable to think of anything else to do, she encased herself in rock.

The hammer came down. It bashed in her shell and struck her chest. All the air in her lungs going out at once was almost as painful as the ribs it cracked.

But she wasn't dead, not yet. And she didn't need air to earthbend.

She slammed her fist against the earth, digging a boulder out of the ground, then sent it flying at her enemy. The woman was too occupied with preparing the finishing blow to notice. It crashed into her and sent her flying, right into the wall she created next.

Toph finally breathed in, then cried out in pain. She tried to stand up, but couldn't summon the energy. She was barely even able to see anymore.

_Even dying is probably better than waiting to die…_

* * *

Azula couldn't help screaming in pain and frustration as her feet slid backward a little bit more.

She couldn't see. She couldn't think. She had no idea what was going on. By all rights she should be unconscious or dead by now. Instead, here she was, barely managing to block the most powerful firebending move she had ever experienced, Ozai included. And as soon as she flinched, she _would_ die.

_So I won't be killed in a grand battle or in a duel by my father, but by someone I've never met before on a spirits-forsaken mountain defending people I don't even care about. Lovely._

In her current state, she couldn't deny the temptation to just…let…go…

* * *

A small sphere descended onto the battlefield.

It had originally been Azula's suggestion, though Sokka and the mechanist had refined it thoroughly. It was a small bag filled with a fluid that contained explosive properties if it came into contact with fire. The original plan had been for Azula herself to set it off, but she was presently occupied. However, a suitable substitute had made itself obvious.

As the bag came into contact with the enemy firebenders' attack, the mountaintop rang with the cry of fireworks.

"Yes!" Sokka shouted. "I _told_ you we needed to wait for the right time!"

* * *

Whether by design or serendipity, both Kalu and Toph had managed to push their opponents close enough to each other that all four remaining enemies were caught up in the explosion. But, unless they got extraordinarily lucky, there was still one stage left in this battle.

As soon as the explosion sounded, Kalu ran over to Azula. Unsurprisingly, she had finally passed out. So he stood her up and, though it wasn't medically good for her, poked a few pressure points with his dagger that made her legs stiffen, enabling him to stand her up.

When the smoke cleared, he saw that the two firebenders were on the ground unmoving. That was good news, at least. But the other two were still standing, albeit ragged-looking, and needless to say did not seem happy.

However, they still had the war balloon above them, and to the enemy the Avatar looked awake. The warhammer-wielding giant seemed like she still wanted to fight, but the knife woman said, "Come on, Suzue. Take Hiro and Hina with us and let's go. No sense dragging this out longer than necessary."

Kalu watched as the giant picked up the firebenders, climbed into the empty tank as the knife woman entered the one with the dead archer, and they rode the vehicles down the mountain.

He allowed himself to close his eyes for a second, breathe in, and breathe out.

Then he tapped Azula's pressure points again, letting her lie on the ground, and ran over to Naya to assess her condition.

Warriors got to rest at the end of the battle, but a healer's work was never done.

* * *

When Azula regained consciousness, she was lying on some sort of bed. That explained why she couldn't see very much, at least.

"Would anyone happen to be here?" she asked, voice raspy from lack of use.

"Oh, you're awake, little Avatar," Kalu's voice said. "Would you mind keeping still? I was in the middle of an examination."

Azula sighed inwardly, but she knew better than to argue with him when he was treating her.

A few minutes of poking and prodding later, Kalu said, "Alright, done."

"How am I?"

"Basically healthy. You didn't have many physical injuries; just the poison, really, and I'd already flushed that out of your system. Now I think you just need some rest—that battle was fairly taxing, to say the least—but you should be up and about in half a day or so."

She nodded. "How are the others?"

"Toph has a few cracked ribs, but waterbending's good at healing that kind of thing. I got to her quick so I was able to set her bones and start them healing relatively easily. She's already walking around. Her chest area will be sore for a few weeks as the ribs heal, and it'll probably be uncomfortable to breathe during that time, but she should make a full recovery eventually."

"…And Naya?"

Kalu paused. "She took a poisoned arrow in the stomach. That's extremely dangerous even if I had gotten to her immediately. Because of the delay caused by the battle…"

Azula nodded again. He didn't have to say it.

"…she'll be bedridden for a few days," Kalu finished.

"…Bedridden?"

"Yes. What did you think I was going to say?" He seemed inordinately pleased with himself.

"But, you said—"

"Don't get me wrong, an arrow in the stomach's no laughing matter, but it's not fatal if it's treated in a reasonable timeframe. And the poison was meant for you, little Avatar, which means it wasn't fatal; the Firelord wants you alive, after all. She'll be fine."

Azula clenched and unclenched her left fist; her right arm still felt weak. "As soon as I'm better, I am going to kill you. Haven't decided how yet, except that it'll be very long and painful."

Kalu laughed and patted her head. "Looking forward to it. Now I'm going to go check on Naya. You should get some more sleep, little Avatar." He was still laughing as he walked out of the room.

Azula tried to get into a comfortable position and swore to herself that she was never coming to this mountain again.

* * *

Zhao crossed his arms and tapped his finger on his elbow. "Explain to me, if you would, why you didn't shoot down that balloon."

The man in front of him gulped. Mongke told him the two firebenders were pushovers if they weren't together, so he was taking advantage of that fact. "We thought we should eliminate the Avatar first—"

"You mean capture, I assume?"

"Y-yes. Capture."

"And yet the Avatar had blocked your attack. Don't you think you should've changed strategies instead of continued doing the same thing?"

The man looked away. "I'm _here_, soldier!" Zhao barked, and he swiveled his head back. Zhao noted with approval the fear in his face.

"Well…she was weakening, so we kind of thought, she'd probably give out in a few more seconds…"

"And after 'a few more seconds' had passed?"

His eyes darted down for a second before meeting Zhao's again. "…We thought that surely after a few more seconds—"

Zhao put his hand up. "I've heard enough. Go back to your Colonel and wait for further instructions."

He didn't need to be told twice. He scurried off faster than a rabbit-squirrel.

Zhao let out a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. He had to admit, assuming their story was accurate, they had done a better job than he had thought they would. But they made several stupid decisions, one of them died, and most importantly they _lost_. What was supposed to be a routine job before he met up with his main fleet had turned into a disaster. When the Firelord heard about this, he'd probably get demoted.

When Zhao thought of that, he roared in anger and frustration. _No! I've worked too hard and come too far to fail now. Not when I'm so close to achieving my destiny…_

But as he thought about it, a smile started forming on his face again. Word wouldn't reach the Firelord about this battle for a while. Certainly not before Zhao reached his fleet. And when word _did_ reach him, what if it was counterbalanced with news that he had taken over the North Pole and killed the Moon…?

He called for a runner. "Send word to the officers," he told the courier. "We're meeting up with the main fleet."

"Yes, sir," the man said.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said before the runner had left.

"Yes, Admiral?"

Zhao grinned. "Tell them to bring warm clothing."

* * *

After Azula was (somewhat) fully recovered, she confirmed the details of their arrangement with the mechanist—design new weapons for the Earth Kingdom instead of the Fire Nation, not exactly complicated—and then was prepared to finally leave for the North Pole.

"Ah, before you go, Avatar, there's one more thing I think I should tell you…" the mechanist said.

She sighed. "What is it?"

"Most of the time, the Fire Nation didn't give me detailed instructions for which weapons they wanted me to design. There was…one exception."

She wasn't liking his tone. "Yes?"

"Approximately a year ago, they asked me to design a…drill."

"A _drill_?" Her tone conveyed doubt.

The Mechanist was even more nervous than normal. "Yes. A giant drill, to be specific. I…can only really think of one use such a machine could have. And…well. Some of the people here fly out to do trade and the like, and one of them told me they received information that the Fire Nation brought a giant drill to the Earth Kingdom a few days ago."

Azula considered the matter, but not for long. "I'm going to have some choice words for you once this war is over," she growled and stormed toward the door.

"Wait!" the Mechanist yelled.

"What!"

"…You can take the war balloon."

So it transpired that Azula found herself traveling with Toph and Sokka (Kalu stayed behind to treat Naya) back to Ba Sing Se, riding in a balloon, fuming the entire way.

* * *

**End Chapter 14**

* * *

**Author's Notes: **It's been much longer than I wanted it to be, and I have no real excuse. All I can do is apologize and hope to do better in the future. I really _do_ want to finish this before the year is over.

The next chapter is probably going to be relatively short, but I'm excited about it—it's an idea I've had since I was writing _Trapped_. So that one shouldn't take long, maybe even a week (but no promises). Unfortunately I have a number of things I need to do in August, and then graduate school starts up again which always drains time and energy. So we'll see how things go.

As always, I highly appreciate every review that I get. Please give me constructive criticism if you have any. Also, just for your information, reviews can often guilt-trip me into writing new chapters quicker (I mean that in the nicest possible sense, understand).

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


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